The Power of Two
by bRokEN PuPPETxx
Summary: Hitomi is transported back to Gaea, but she brings with her an unexpected guest...
1. Remembrances and Ordeals

**Disclaimer:** EscaFlowne is not mine. Its characters, its storyline, and its world are not mine either, though I wish may wish they were. Many characters you will meet in this fiction, however, _are_ mine, so I would appreciate it if no one used them without my permission.

**Author's Notes:** I've finally gotten a review that will help, no offense to all you reviewers. It's just that, not so recently, I received a review that criticized my work. I thank whoever wrote it, seeing as to how I'm on this site not only because I like to write but also because I want to become a better writer. So, because of that review from an alleged drunkard, who made more sense than many of my friends when they're sober, I've decided to rewrite completely this fic. It will have essentially the same storyline, but it'll be much more interesting if you reread the whole thing because I'm going to be dropping some clues as to what will happen later on. Thanks a lot for reading and please read and review. .v

**Fortune 1-Rememberances and Ordeals**

"Van, I'll miss you," Hitomi said quietly, choking back tears. The wind blew her school uniform around her and her short brown hair tickled her face. She blinked her magnificent green eyes in another futile attempt to keep the tears from coming.

After so long in Gaea, after so long away from home, Hitomi had decided that she wanted to become stronger and, though she had yet to realize it herself, she had. "There has to be another way," Van's voice matched Hitomi's. The young woman stared at the horizon; the two moons were just starting to rise, their majestic faces reflected in the water under the bridge she was on. She couldn't bring herself too look at her companion; it hurt her enough to be hearing his voice and knowing that this would be the last time.

After what felt like hours, Hitomi answered, "There is none… I don't want to leave. Not now, not yet, not ever." Hitomi sighed, a sound that reflected the sadness she felt inside of her. She wasn't only going to leave the world that had been home to her these past months, but she was also going to be leaving the man whom she had fallen in love with, the young man that stood behind her now and whose very presence was torturing her silently.

Hitomi felt Van's hand on her shoulder before he spun her around to look at him. "Then don't," he breathed, his face was hopeful, but deep beneath that hope Hitomi could sense that he knew it was impossible.

The young woman looked down, "I know that it would be selfish if I stayed." Van loosened his grip on Hitomi and she took the opportunity to once again lean against the side of the bridge and stare at the rising moons. "This is the only time I can leave, when our worlds are closest. I still have people waiting for me back home; there are so many people I can't bear to leave behind…my friends, my family… I can't just forget about them," Hitomi looked down at her pendant and was hit with a sudden stroke of genius. She turned around to smile at Van, it felt like the first time her lips had moved in that way in such a long time, but it was a welcome feeling.

"I'll give you this to remember me by," Hitomi said as she unclasped her necklace and placed it in Van's hands, her smile faded. Van's gaze remained transfixed upon the pendant, glowing with the faint light of the moons. A slight breeze ruffled the young king's hair and he looked up only to find that Hitomi had disappeared just as suddenly as she had appeared.

Van leaned against the edge of the bridge and watched as the Mystic Moon, Hitomi's world, disappeared from view. As the young man bent his head low a glittering light in the water caught his eyes. Without thinking, the impulsive young man jumped into the water. He surfaced and wiped the wet hair out of his eyes to see the object that he now had clasped in his hands. A silvery feather glowed in his palm and Van smiled in a way that he didn't think he would be able to any more. "I'll never forget you, Hitomi. Someday, I _will_ find a way to bring you back…"

---Japan seven years later---

Five-year-old Sayako was skipping home from school. Her long, thick, silky black hair fanned out behind her in the gentle autumn zephyr. The young girl's bright blue eyes were closed and her face was lit up with an angelic smile. Sayako was quietly humming the tune to a song that her best friend, Arekusa, had shown her earlier that day. Suddenly, the young girl slammed into something. Her pink lunchbox flew out of her hand and slid across the ground as she fell backwards.

"Hey, kid," said the person that Sayako had bumped into.

"I'm sorry! I'm really, really sorry!" the young girl shouted. "I didn't mean to." She felt extremely bad about hitting someone. Sayako didn't take the chance to look at the other person until she had stood up and brushed most of the dirt off of her clothes. She couldn't do anything about the stinging scrape on the palm of her hand from the fall.

Sayako looked up, her angelic blue eyes looking at the person through her long eyelashes. She had bumped into a frighteningly beautiful young girl. She must have been thirteen at least; Sayako was never very good at judging people's ages. The teenager had piercing brown eyes that were focused into a cold, hard glare that chilled the younger girl to her bones. Her short blonde hair framed her face, but at this moment it was floating around her in the breeze. The older girl blew a bubble of gum, somehow the feat only managed to make her look even more frightening than before.

"Are you Hirada Aiichirou's sister?" came a voice from the shadows of the nearby alleyway. A young boy, probably about the same age as the girl, sat atop a pile of boxes. He was with two more boys, one was leaning against a dumpster and the other was sitting on the lowest of the pile of boxes. They were even more intimidating than the girl, if that was possible.

The boy who had spoken wore a red bandana. His black hair was spiked in a way that Sayako did not think possible. His cold, dark eyes seemed to look through Sayako, and, unknowingly, she hugged herself trying not to let him see inside of her. The one that was casually leaning against the dumpster had spiked brown hair tied in a short ponytail in the back. He wore sunglasses that hid his eyes, Sayako was afraid to see what they were like anyway. But the last boy, sitting on the boxes with one leg up and the other one swinging on the side, was wearing a kindly smile. He had kind amber eyes and long red hair tied back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

Sayako couldn't help but grin, the red-haired boy's smile was infectious. And besides, intimidating though the group was, they could not have been bad, they knew Aiichirou by his first name. "Yup!"

The blonde girl smiled and stepped backwards a little and snapped her fingers. For a few seconds, Sayako stared, confused, at the girl, at least until the older girl's smile turned into an ugly smirk. The younger girl felt something slam into her and she fell forwards onto her knees. She quickly got up and turned around only to be hit again, in the stomach this time. She doubled over, this time she decided not to get up. Someone kicked her over and she curled up into a ball. Tears streamed her face as she felt each blow make contact.

Sayako heard someone screaming. It took her a moment to realize that it was her. It seemed like such an unearthly sound, nothing that had ever come out of her mouth before. A series of sounds suddenly burst through her own; a gasp and an unearthly shriek, someone talking and the sound of fists making contact with a person's skin. The young girl desperately wanted to look up, to see what was happening, but her muscles refused to move. She just lay curled up on the ground with her eyes closed, trying to catch her breath.

She felt herself being lifted off the ground. The first thought running through her mind was that she had died and was being carried to heaven, but then opened her eyes a little. She felt someone's arms around her, she saw the blurred outline of a face, and she smelled something so familiar and comforting that she imagined curling up near a fire and falling asleep. It was Aiichirou…it had to be, it could be no one else. Little Sayako knew her brother all too well; his feel, his smell, everything.

Sayako loved her brother unimaginably. She followed him around like a puppy, imitating his actions. The two of them were inseparable, one could never be found without the other.

The little girl waited a moment to regain her sight, not that she needed it to see her brother. She had all his features locked away in the safest part of her brain. She closed her eyes and imagined her brother in her mind's eye, carrying her back to their house. Aiichirou and Sayako had the same hair, their father's thick, black hair that shone like raven's wings in the sun. Aiichirou had his mother's chocolate brown eyes and a voice that was like honey for the ears. The boy had decided to spike his hair for the day, and two unruly strands of his bangs were died a bright fiery red.

"I'm so sorry," Aiichirou said quietly. His voice sounded strained oddly strained, as if he was trying to hold back tears. Unfortunately, his attempt was in vain. Sayako felt his tears hitting the side of her face. She buried her face into her brother's chest, not wanting any of this to be real.

Aiichirou's strength was the one thing she could count on. Papa was busy, so he always came home at a different time and Mama was always meeting with her many brothers and sisters, of whom Aiichirou and Sayako had never met. Aiichirou was always there for Sayako; a shoulder to cry on, a pat on the back. He never cried. He was always smiling and laughing, no matter the circumstance. Hearing her brother cry, more unsettling was feeling the cold reality of the tears, shattered Sayako's view of the world.

"Don't…cry…!" the little girl shouted, tears now streaming down her face, streaking the dirt that already masked her visage. She clutched her brother's shirt in her fists and buried her face still deeper into the now completely soaked material. Aiichirou stopped and hugged his sister tighter.

"Don't worry, I won't anymore, I promise," he said with a smile, a few rebellious tears still glistening in his eyes. Sayako looked up, her brother's face was blurred by her own tears, but she still managed a weak smile. And so, she fell asleep, still clutching her brother's soaked red shirt, the smile starting to fade from her lips…

---

_I awoke and slowly waited for my vision to focus. I was faintly aware of being strapped tightly to an uncomfortable hospital-like bed, I say faintly aware because I was in that half-conscious state of one who had just slept for a very long time. I could tell that I was someplace different, because I didn't smell Aiichirou. I know that sounds a little strange, but that was one way I always identified him. It was a distinct smell, somewhat like vanilla and a little like crème brul__ée__. There wasn't even a trace of him; this new place smelled of hospital, that dreadful smell that scarred its way into the memories of those who had ever experienced it._

_It did not take long for my eyesight to return to me. I turned my head left and right, not only to take in my surroundings but also to test whether I could or not. It was difficult; my neck was strapped to the bed, though much more loosely than my arms, legs, and abdomen. It was an interesting place that seemed to fit so well with its smell. The walls were of such a pure white that, had the lights not been so dim, would have blinded me. Large windows covered the walls, but black drapes were drawn closed over them so as not to let in the slightest ray of light. Entrancing, yet grotesque and horrifying, pictures were pinned to almost any parts of the wall that did not have a window. There were images of people being tortured, of bloody massacres, and of fires so terrible that they could only have come from hell. But the thing that was branded the deepest into my impressionable mind was the door. I could see it clearly from where I was so uncomfortably laying without having to move my head. It was huge, twice the size of a normal door, and made of a dark beautiful wood. Elegant phoenixes, vines and dragons were engraved into the door in such a way that they seemed to be telling a story._

_A burst of pain buzzed up my left arm. Some people might find it strange that I can remember such things, but it is only due to the fact that the pain has yet to leave me. Still sometimes, a sharp pain will run across my arm from the scar on the underside of my wrist._

_The scar…that was the source of it all. The pain that I felt shooting up my arm... and everything that happened to me afterwards. From what I could see (due to the limited movement of my neck, just trying to look down at my immobile arm caused my eyes to water) it looked like a triangle. Inside of it was another, smaller, triangle, its tip the midpoint of the base of the other. It kind of reminded me of something I had seen in one of my brother's videogames. My head snapped back onto the bed once more, the searing pain from the impact made me feel as if my head had split in two._

_Suddenly, I felt another burst of pain shoot through my arm. I screamed, I couldn't help it. It was probably one of the stupider things I'd done in my life, including everything that happened after it. As soon as the first hint of a noise left my lips the door flew open. Light streamed through for an instant until it was loudly slammed shut, I would have expected such a nice door to be treated better._

_I stopped screaming and noticed the group of people around me. I assumed they were all men, but I couldn't be too sure. They each wore ambiguous masks over their faces and hoods over their heads. Cloaks covered them from head to toe so that not even an inch of skin was left visible. Though the styles were the same, they all wore different colors. It reminded me slightly of a bad fashion magazine, the kind that showed the same clothes over and over on different people and in different colors. As I was studying their wardrobes, I noticed that each of them had a blade of some sort. Some had daggers or swords strapped to their sides, or a long sword strapped across their backs._

_I didn't have time to study them more. "She woke too soon!" one of the people closest to me yelled, a hint of panic creeping into his voice, at least it sounded like a he. This man was dressed in yellow, as were quite a few of the, what I guessed to be, a hundred figures._

_"It has failed," said another figure, whom I also assumed was male. He wore black and was speaking so coolly that I felt the chill creep up my bones and freeze the marrow._

_Another figure stepped forward, gazing intently at me rather than the others. In the dim light it looked to be wearing deep red, but it could have been a strange shade of orange. "We cannot risk it," the person said, this one sounded female. "We must dispose of her."_

_At the time, it had taken me quite a while to realize that 'dispose of' meant 'kill,' just in fancier terms. I refused to take that lying down, not to be meant literally of course. I did not want to die then and there. "NO!" The word forced its way out of my mouth before I had even thought to say it._

_I got the distinct impression that the woman was smiling at me, though I couldn't say for sure why I thought that. All heads turned toward me as my shout echoed and died in the cold, dark room. "So, she is awake enough to speak…" said one of the figures in white. It sounded like an old man, a very pleased and surprised, yet somehow proud, old man. Just as the words left his lips the man in black, whose voice made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, unsheathed his dagger from his side and held it up to my neck._

_It hovered there a moment as the swoosh of the other figures' blades surrounded me as they leapt out of their sheaths. I shivered, a reaction that I did not wish to take place. The man in black chuckled to himself, as if thinking back on an inside joke. His laugh made me want to shed my skin and run. It was, if possible, colder than his voice. It not only chilled the marrow in my bones and raised the hairs on the back of my neck, but it also gave the impression of someone who enjoyed making people suffer._

_"I can't die yet!" I found myself yelling, the tears were starting to blur my vision again, "I'm not even in the first grade!" Stupid? Definitely, but effective all the same. The man drew his blade from my neck, if even for an instant. At this time, every instant was precious to me._

_The man laughed. It was soon echoed by every person in the room, not including myself of course. Just from this, I could tell that they regarded him with respect, that or he ruled them as a fierce dictator who only managed to keep his position by instilling fear into his subordinates and people. The chilling laughter stopped abruptly and was echoed through the forbidding room. The dark figure once again held his blade up to my neck. Just as I could feel it with the woman in red, I could tell that this man, too, was smiling. Well, at least one of us would be enjoying himself when I died._

_I felt the blade piece my skin, just lightly enough to cause a thin line of blood to trickle down my neck and onto my hair, which was fanned out in all different directions. I screamed. I didn't hurt, it just scared me._

_An image of my brother flashed in my mind's eyes. For an instant I thought I smelled him, that sweet aroma which I always identified with him. Oh, how the mind tortures the innocent, or something like that. I thought I was going mad, delusional from fear, until I heard his voice, that is. Actually…I thought I was going mad even after I heard his comforting voice._

_Just hearing Aiichirou's voice, and of course smelling his sweet fragrance, tortured me more than anything else they could have conjured up. Then I heard something else, another familiar voice, "Sayako!" it shouted. My eyes flew open and I turned my neck to the side a little. I knew that voice anywhere, just as well as I knew Aiichirou's. It was my Papa!_

_His blue eyes seemed transfixed around his face. At that moment, I no longer felt as if I was in the disturbing white room, though I could distinctly feel the leather straps cutting into my skin. Everything around me was black, but for a few people who chose to make their way to the scene. My Papa was one of them and he stood, his bright blue eyes seemingly transfixed upon my dirty face from behind his square glasses, next to my brother. They were a few steps in front of everyone else, which included all the family members I knew and met, as well as Arekusa._

_Arekusa stood in the back, her face towards the ground, and her back toward me. I couldn't understand why, and at the time I didn't really care. I was just so glad that they had all come to save me. Looking back on it now, I suppose I should have paid more attention._

_My gaze shifted back to my father and brother. Aiichirou's head was bent low, his hair covering his eyes. "I let those kids hurt you," he balled his hands into fists and his voice seemed strained again. He lifted his face so that I could see his tear-filled eyes. "I won't let it happen again, I promise. I'll protect you."_

_I tried to speak, but couldn't manage anything. Everything was starting to blur and I felt a tear roll down my cheek. "You're a very special little girl, Sayako," my father said. My eyes snapped back to him. "Not only to me, but to the fate of the world. You must promise me to live through the darkness and shine brighter than ever, brighter than the brightest star in the sky."_

_Everyone said something to me and my gaze shifted to each of them in turn as they spoke. Well, everyone except for Arekusa. She looked so grief-stricken and disheveled that I wondered how she was able to stand at all. Her eyes were slightly out of focus as she continued to stare at the black ground._

_Suddenly the room slammed down around me, and there was everyone, standing beside the bed while the masked figures surrounded it. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then that's when it began…the image that was burned forever into my memory._

_Blood of loved ones touched my flesh, each droplet burned as it made contact with my skin. Aiichirou ran over to me, pushing friend and foe alike out of the way. He quickly undid the straps that bound me to the table, and before I could get up myself, he whisked me off the bed and ran through the scene that could have been easily mistaken for hell._

_I hugged him tightly, hoping that, when I opened my eyes, everything would be back to normal. Aiichirou tripped and dropped me. I skidded painfully across the floor. Slowly I started to get up, but then a calming voice deep in the back of my mind spoke out. "Don't move, don't get up," it said in a sweet, deep voice._

_Aiichirou jumped up and starting running toward me. I saw the man in black appear behind him. "Aiichirou!" I shouted, knowing already that it was too late. My brother saw him out the corner of his eyes. Aiichirou dove toward me and landed, kneeling, beside me. He smiled reassuringly, his dark brown eyes closed. Suddenly a sword blade emerged from his stomach. Instantly his eyes opened wide with surprise, and, since he knew that it would be the last thing he would ever do, he smiled in an attempt to comfort me and tell me that it was all right._

_The man in black pulled his blade out of my brother's stomach with a horrible sucking sound. He looked at me a moment, not even the slightest hint of pity in his eyes, and then turned away, back to the battlefield. I got onto my hands and knees and crawled over to my brother's body. He was laying face first on the ground._

_As I knelt next to my brother's lifeless body, the world seemed to fade away around me. I just kept seeing my brother falling, his last smile still on his lips. He just kept falling, never hitting the ground. He was dead, Aiichirou was dead. He would never smile again; he would never laugh again, or comfort me again. He was dead and it was my fault. I kept thinking, 'if I had done this,' or 'if I had done that…' I blamed myself for the death of the person that I loved most._

_"Arekusa!" My father's voice rang through the chilling silence that had infected me. "Take Sayako and run!" It sounded so far away. I felt someone grab my arm and drag me up and across the room. I felt as if I was floating above my body, taking in the whole scene from someplace far away. Even Arekusa's touch felt so far away._

_I saw a blade run through Papa's stomach, exactly the way it had when I watched Aiichirou's murder. He gasped for breath and fell forward, his hands holding the bloodied tip of the blade._

_"Come on! Wake up, Sayako!" I snapped back to reality at the sharpness in Arekusa's voice. A glowing beam of light descended before us, and there was a clear path leading to it. I found myself sprinting to it, dragging Arekusa along behind me._

_We were almost there and I sensed something. I sensed that this strange light was calling to me. I felt someone push me, hard, from behind. Just as I stumbled into the path of light, I turned around and saw a blade run through Arekusa's heart. She didn't gasp for breath as my father had done, she didn't smile as my brother had done; she just fell over, instant death. "Arekusa!" I looked frantically around to room, everyone was dead. The bodies of my loved ones were strewn across the floor and I noticed that one was missing, my mother._

---

Sayako's angelic blue eyes fluttered open. She was lying on her back in front of her house. She dragged herself up and dusted herself off. She was covered with cuts and bruises, but there were no signs of the terrible ordeal that she had just witnessed. It had been nothing but a horrible nightmare.

The little girl flung open the door and ran inside. "Mama!" she cried as she burst into the kitchen where her mother was sitting. Her eyes were red, as if she had been crying, and her skin was blotchy, but she was smiling broadly.

The woman rose from her seat, the chair crashing to the ground behind her, and swooped down onto her child like a hawk. She held Sayako in a tight embrace, as if she was afraid of letting go. "I'm so glad you're alright," her mother said. Sayako took it to mean that she was worried since she had been out so long, it was nearly dark.

"I'm fine, Mama," Sayako said brightly, an innocent smile lighting her face. "Where are Papa and Aiichirou?" she glanced quickly around the room, as if expecting them to step up and hug her, too.

"They're visiting one of your aunties and they won't be back for a very long time." Her mother's voice sounded a little strange—congested maybe?—but it wasn't enough to alarm the little girl. That just proved it; everything that had happened was a dream. Sayako could not imagine that her mother would ever lie to her…

---Two months later---

Little Sayako was skipping down the street, just as she had been that day so long ago. She had grown taller and her hair was longer than before. The child was swinging her pink lunchbox back and forth, thinking about her father, brother, and best friend, as she made her way down the street. A quiet tune made its way past her lips; she was once again humming the song that Arekusa had taught her.

It was two months now, and she still had no word of her father or brother. They must have still been visiting her auntie. But, the strangest part of it was that Arekusa had been missing for a long time, too. She hadn't seen her best friend since the day she had that horrible nightmare.

A sharp, distinct pain shattered through Sayako's thoughts. She dropped her lunchbox and clutched her left hand. Her whole right hand was circled around the wrist. The young girl was afraid to look down, though she had convinced herself that the nightmare wasn't real, it still haunted her dreams at night and would not leave her mind.

Slowly she looked down and a horrible image was etched into the underside of her wrist. She gasped and fell over. This couldn't be happening! It was supposed to have been a dream!

Thousands of thoughts swarmed through her head, the most prominent few: her mother had lied to her, Arekusa and Papa were dead, and she had killed Aiichirou. A horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that something bad was going to happen, just as it had done in her nightmare.

Sayako looked up; she was still sitting uncomfortably on the ground, and noticed the dark clouds invading a small part of the sky. That was strange, the day had been clear so far, not a cloud in sight. This couldn't have been normal. It took the girl a few moments to realize that the distant clouds were hovering near her home.

She got up and sprinted, leaving her lunchbox abandoned on the ground. As she drew nearer to the source of the foreboding dark clouds an acrid stench surrounded her. It was the smell of fire, and she was immediately reminded of the painting of the hellfire in the white room that haunted her dreams.

Not only were the flames near her house, they were in her house! When Sayako drew near enough to see the source of the clouds, she realized that it was her own home that was being burnt to the ground. Desperately, she hoped that her mother had made it safely out and was alright.

A crowd was gathered a safe distance around the house. Sayako ran through the people, searching for even the slightest glimpse of her mother. "Mama!" She screamed. There was no answer. The girl found herself beside the fire truck. Without thinking, she sprinted forward, trying to get into her house. Her mother was still trapped inside.

Someone grabbed her arm by the elbow and held her back. Sayako struggled and tried to twist out of the person's strong grasp. "Let me go! My mama's still in there!" but in the commotion no one paid any heed to the girl's cries, and she felt warm tears streaking once again down her face.

"Sayako…" the girl dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands. "Sayako…" she looked up, and in the smoke she saw her mother's face. She looked wildly around her; surely someone else must be seeing this. "Sayako, I love you," she said slowly, as if relishing the feel of the words on her tongue or the sound of them resonating in her ears.

"Mama?" Sayako whispered, she tasted a few salty tears on her tongue and she licked her dry, cracked lips.

"I'm sorry, I lied to you," said Sayako's mother. "I didn't want to hurt you…" her voice was starting to sound strained. "Aiichirou, your father, Arekusa…they're all gone. They all died to protect you. I couldn't do anything for you, I'm so sorry."

"That's not true," the girl said quietly, then louder, "that's not true!"

"Listen to me, Sayako," her mother said sternly. "You can change everything. You're special; you have the power to change the destiny that we've all been forced into. You have a greater reason for living. Don't you ever forget that. Please, Sayako, keep on living, for all of us…" At those last words, Sayako watched her mother's face fade and disappear in the smoke.

She got up and started walking away from the scene, she didn't know where she was going, she just wanted to get as far away from the fire as possible. And so, alone, little Sayako wandered the streets.

---

"Mom, I'm home!" Hitomi Kanzaki opened the door to her house. She carefully slipped off her shoes and walked into the kitchen, shuffling through the mail. The young woman now found herself teacher, as well as track coach, at her old school. She was waiting until she had saved up a lot of money before she moved out of her mother's home. "Guess she's not here again." Hitomi flung her bag onto the floor.

Before she could finish shuffling through the mail, she noticed a note from her mother on the table. "I wonder…" Hitomi said curiously as she picked up the paper and read. The handwriting was messy and looked rushed.

_Hitomi,_

_ I'm going to be home late tonight. There was a fire on the other side of town; your aunt was caught in it. She didn't make it out. I've already asked the firemen if they've seen her family, but they all seem to be missing. Someone said a little girl tried to run in earlier, I think that might be her daughter. I'm going out to look for her._

_ There's some instant ramen in the cupboard, it's the kind you like, chicken. I'll be home as soon as I can._

_Mom_

"Aunt Torura died? That's horrible," Hitomi couldn't bring herself to feel too badly over her aunt's death. After all, she never really knew the woman that well. She was worried about her aunt's children; her young son and even younger daughter. "I hope they find them…" she muttered.

Hitomi made her way to the cupboard and took out some instant ramen, all the while still shuffling through the mail. One letter caught her attention. She placed the box of ramen on the counter and sat at the table. The young woman ran her fingers over the envelope. The paper was stained, as if it was old, and the writing was extravagant, not to mention written in shiny, dark purple ink.

She tore open the envelope and two things fell out: a letter and a picture. Hitomi grabbed the letter and examined it. It was written in the same flourishing handwriting and purple ink, and the paper seemed burned at the edges. She had to read over it a few times before she could fully absorb its meaning.

_Lady Hitomi,_

_ We are aware that there has been an accident today involving your aunt. I apologize for being blunt, but we are running short on time. Your aunt did not make it out alive. Your uncle, Akusuru, and their son, Aiichirou, are no longer a live as well, though their deaths were under different circumstances._

_ Your aunt left one thing behind, one very important thing…her five-year-old daughter, Sayako. The circumstances of Akusuru's and Aiichirou's deaths were involved in a great ordeal that the girl had to endure. She will now be granted amazing powers, much like yours when you endeavored to Gaea, only more powerful and burdensome._

_ Your cousin has no one left to turn to. She has no family to turn to but yours. Please, find her. She is more important than even she may know. Attached is a photo of her. By the time you find her she will have changed her name from 'Sayako' to 'Star.' Take good care of her, quite a lot is riding on that girl's shoulders._

Hitomi looked at the letter. All traces of her skepticism vanished. Why? Well, because the letter mentioned things that only someone close to her would know, such as her aunt's death. Also, they had called her 'Lady Hitomi' something that only those in Gaea had done. And lastly, because of the mention of Gaea; know one but her closest friends and family knew of her venture in the other world all those years ago.

The young woman ran her hand through her short brown hair, and her eyes fell on the picture that had fallen out of the envelope. Slowly she picked it up. There was a young girl with bright blue eyes and long, disheveled black hair. She was sitting on the sidewalk, her eyes unfocused, and her clothes tattered. Hitomi pocketed the picture and ran out the door.

She drove around the street a couple of times, but she did not catch even a glimpse of the young girl for whom she was searching. Exhausted, Hitomi pulled into her driveway and got out of her car.

She sighed and looked across the street. She couldn't quite explain why she felt so disappointed; she hadn't even really known the person from whom she had received the mysterious letter. But its words echoed through her mind, _she has no family to turn to but yours_… _Quite a lot is riding on that girl's shoulders_…

Hitomi gasped and her eyes widened. She grabbed the photo from her pocket and looked at it a moment. Her gaze shifted back across the street again. The young woman smiled before pocketing the photo again and crossing the street.

---

_"Mama," I said quietly. I went over everyone's names in my head, the names of everyone who had died on my behalf. Not a tear leaked from my eyes. I couldn't cry, I couldn't do anything, I just felt so empty on the inside. Like a hollow shell, my spirit had floated away. At least, that's what I felt like until I reached the end of my list and said the last name to myself, "Aiichirou." I couldn't stop the tears from coming as his last moments replayed themselves in my mind. His desperate leap, the first smile, his eyes widening and the blood-soaked blade, his last slow, lazy smile, and the figure clad in black who had killed him._

_I let my feet wander on their own; my head was too busy swarming with all those angry thoughts. I had no idea as to where they were leading me, nor did I really care at that moment._

_I knew I didn't have the cleanest of images; I had been wandering through the maze of streets for what felt like centuries, but must have only really been an hour or so. I suppose this was why people were starting to stare, or it might have been because I was alone and crying. It didn't matter either way. I paid them no mind, just as no one had listened to me when I cried that Mama was still in the house in the fire. Everything was just too far away. I felt as if I was no longer wandering through the familiar streets, but instead I felt like I was in a completely different world. I was living in a world so far away from everyone else because I had experienced things that they never had, things that separated me from the rest of the world._

_It took me a moment before I realized that I was no longer walking, but instead sitting on a curb in a peaceful section of town….a section of town that was not touched by the deadly fire. I tried to stop the tears from coming, I tried so hard to stop crying, but I couldn't. I tried to be strong like Arekusa and Aiichirou, but I couldn't. Just thinking about their strength and courage made more tears come._

_I don't know how long I was sitting there, crying, before I felt it, that sharp pain in my left wrist that always seemed to indicate something bad about to happen. I didn't need to look at my wrist to know that the dreadful scar was back. And in a fleeting moment, I wondered if it meant that I would be next. In that same instant, I decided that I didn't care if I was. I had nothing left to live for anymore, I had nowhere to go and no family to turn to. A world without Arekusa, Papa, Mama, and Aiichirou just seemed too empty, and so I didn't care if it was now my turn to die as they all had before me._

_I lifted my head and looked across the street. A young woman stood there, she looked strangely familiar. Then I realized why, she had the same build as my Mama did, when I had seen pictures of her when she was younger. The woman got out of her car and turned in my direction, her short brown hair whipped around her face. She caught sight of me and her bright green eyes grew wide in recognition._

_I was too far away to really care, though. I was seeing everything as if it was through a tunnel. I saw the woman take something out of her pocket. She kept looking from it to me, and back, under normal circumstances it would have annoyed me greatly, but at that moment, I didn't really care._

_She crossed the street in a few easy, confident strides. Maybe she was the reason my scar turned up, maybe she would kill me or something…_

_"Hi, I'm Hitomi. Why are you all alone?" Hitomi…that name sounded oddly familiar, but I didn't bother to think of why. I didn't want to answer the question, how do you tell a complete stranger that your family and friend died trying to protect you and your mother just died in a terrible fire? So I sat and watched her silently from my place so far away. When I didn't answer she tried again, "What's your name?" she asked this time._

_My name? I wanted to shed my name and be someone completely different. I no longer wanted to be Sayako. Sayako had killed Papa, Arekusa, and Aiichirou. Sayako had witnessed Mama die without being able to do anything. Sayako only caused death and danger in her wake._

_I couldn't quite figure out why, but I found myself trusting this girl, however unwillingly. "Star," I said quietly, remembering my father's last words to me. She smiled, it was unnerving…she had the same slow, lazy smile as my brother. I suppose that was why I trusted her; she was so much like my brother. She walked with such confidence and she gave off the aura of having great inner strength. This Hitomi woman was so much like Aiichirou…_

_For a moment I wondered why I hadn't told her my real name, too. Why I hadn't told her everything that happened, why I hadn't opened my heart. I realized that I wanted to harden my heart. I never wanted to get hurt again; I never wanted to care for anyone again. Being lonely was better than the pain of losing a loved one. I just didn't want to be alone anymore…_

---

Hitomi held out her hand for Sayako, now Star, her smile still playing on her lips. Star grabbed the woman's hand to pull herself up. Once she had regained her balance she quickly let go and shoved her hands into her pockets. They walked back to the house side-by-side and they both thought of how their lives had changed.


	2. Back to Gaea

**Disclaimer: **…Nope, I still don't own EscaFlowne, or any of its characters. Though, I do own Star/Sayako, Aiichirou, Arekusa, and another new character that is soon to introduced by the name of Blai.

**Author's Notes:** I am so sorry that I'm taking such a long time to do this. But I promise to update more often, so I'll be back to writing new chapters in no time.

**Fortune 2-Back to Gaea**

-Ten years later-

A group of girls was huddled in the hallway, as any group of girls that congregates in the school and 'wants to be secretive' they were talking in loud voices that could be overheard from the other side of the hallway. And, as always, these girls were gossiping maliciously. "Can you believe it? She doesn't even wear the school uniform," one of the girls said in a very loud whisper. This particular young lady went for the Hollywood look; bleached blonde hair, blue contacts, too much make-up…

"Yeah, and I hear the principle's okay with it," another muttered loudly. She flipped her middle-length black hair over her shoulders.

"I bet it's because of Kanzaki-sensei," said another. Well, this young lady was being considerate for she was actually trying to speak quietly, though failing miserably.

A young woman of fifteen leaned coolly against her locker. Her arms were folded over her chest and her unsettling blue eyes were narrowed into a cold glare. She prided herself in her excellent hearing, not that she had needed it to overhear the conversation taking place in front of her.

"She walks around like she owns the school," said the blonde girl in a haughty tone as she took a few strides down the hallway and back.

The young woman's arms stayed folded across her chest as she pushed herself off the lockers. She walked so smoothly that she seemed to be gliding across the ground, and she walked with such confidence that even those who did not like her, and there were quite a few of them, had to admit was amazing. Her baggy black pants dragged a little as she walked.

"Can't think of anything different to say, can you, Sato?" the girl said coolly. She was getting tired of hearing the same things, day in and day out. Her temper could only hold out for so long, and this was a record for her: one week. By now she would have skipped school at least twice, but as a favor to her cousin she decided to stay in a little longer.

"It's only because of Kanzaki-sensei that you're allowed to stay…" That was it. The girl uncrossed her arms and in one quick, fluid motion, punched the speaker in the stomach. She watched as Sato fell to the floor, clutching her stomach. She quickly kicked the blonde girl and re-crossed her arms.

"Kanzaki has nothing to do with this," she said in a voice so cold that it sent shivers up the listeners' spines. "Remember that." The girl was about to walk away when she heard a familiar voice from down the hall.

"Star!" the voice reprimanded. The blue-eyed girl spun around to face the speaker, who was now sprinting towards them down the hallway. "I can't believe you just did that." Star shrugged, it wasn't like she cared what the newcomer thought, though she apparently thought more of her opinion than anyone else's since she was actually listening. "Are you alright, Kurinari-chan?" The newcomer knelt next to the blonde girl, her enchanting green eyes full of concern.

"I'm fine," Sato coughed, "thank you, Kanzaki-sensei."

Hitomi smiled and stood up. The smile slid off her face as she wheeled around to face her cousin. "I thought I told you not to hit people!" she cried. How many times did this make it? Star had gotten into so many fights in the past month that Hitomi had lost count, last time she kept track her cousin had been at ten, and that was only two weeks into the month.

"It's not my fault," Star shrugged again. "She was asking for it." Star unfolded her arms once again and started walking away. She waved at her cousin, who was now standing a good distance behind her. "I'm going to the mall," she said as she glided to the door.

"The school day isn't over yet!" Hitomi yelled. Heads turned in the hallway, Hitomi never yelled at a student. But, when they caught sight of Star, they immediately went on their ways again. It was completely understandable for any teacher to be yelling at the delinquent girl, everyone did.

Star opened the door and turned a little to face her cousin. "Yes, it is," she called back as she stepped out the door. She listened to it slam shut behind her before setting off on her way.

The girl noticed people staring at her as she walked through the streets. The further she got from the school, the more people she caught staring. She wanted to sigh, but didn't. She was used to this, ever since she was a little girl. People tended to stare at her a lot. But who wouldn't? A teenage girl wearing a baggy black sweatshirt with a red stripe near the collar and baggy black pants certainly didn't bring that much attention to herself, unless she was wandering the streets during school. But Star made sure to stand out a little more than that. Her combat boots clunked against the pavement as she took her smooth strides to the mall.

The girl looked in the window of one of the street shops. She was very proud of how she had decided to dress today. The black sweatshirt and baggy black pants were her usual, but today she had a simple black choker and she drew a dragon's wing around her right eye. Her long, black hair was died red at the tips. She smirked at her image and continued walking.

Finally, Star found herself in front of a small shop in the mall. She opened the door and a blue mist rolled out, Star couldn't help but smile. She walked in and the bell rang as her foot touched the mist-covered floor. The girl looked around, she always felt comfortable in this place.

"Skipping again, I see," said a friendly voice.

Star turned and smiled, "Of course. I've been stuck there for a week, can't stand being there that long," the other person laughed. "How's it going, Tasumi?"

"Same as usual," the boy said, switching languages.

"Don't do that," Star complained. Tasumi just came in from the United States, though he knew plenty more languages than just English. At the moment, he decided to start rambling in Italian. "You know I can't understand a word you're saying."

"That's why I do it," he winked. "So, what'll it be today?"

"Just some green tea, alright? I don't have that much money today…"

"What, no one's offered to give up their lunch money?"

Star smiled, "I'm not a bully, Ta-kun." Star punched him lightly on the arm. Laughing, he disappeared behind a black-velvety curtain that always made Star's stomach churn. While she waited, she grabbed a book off one of the shelves and grabbed a beautiful new tarot deck before sitting down on a comfortable pouf. She set the tarot deck beside her and opened the book to start reading.

Tasumi emerged from behind the curtain and set a tray down on the table in front of Star. He took a seat on the pouf next to her. "You know, I'm kind of surprised," he said suddenly. Star would have jumped, had she not trained herself not to.

"Hn?" she asked, completely absorbed in her reading.

"Well, you skip school and come here, to read…"

"Yeah, well, I do some interesting things," Star replied. She set the book down on her lap and took a sip of tea. She made a face. "Ugh, I've always hated this stuff…"

"Why do you drink it?"

Star shrugged, giving Tasumi the impression that she didn't really have a reason. Well, she really did. Star continued to drink the green tea that she loathed only because it was her mother's favorite. It was just one way that she was letting her mother live on in her. "That reminds me!" Tasumi yelled, jumping out of the pouf. Star nodded, indicating that he could continue. "I was doing a tarot reading…about…well…you," Star raised an eyebrow. Tasumi blushed and continued, "And well, I got some pretty strange stuff…"

"Where you using the Celtic cross?" Star asked, he had caught her curiosity.

"No, you know I don't like to take the time," Star frowned slightly when he said this. She much preferred the time-consuming spread, she always found it more accurate that way. "Three-card spread, as usual. Anyway, I got some strange results."

He paused a moment, as if waiting for Star to speak. "No offense, Ta-kun, but you know you suck. Continue anyway…"

Tasumi looked slightly put out, but it faded and he continued on. "Well, it said that you were going someplace far away and that you would never come back. It also said that you'd experience some great tragedy there and find love."

Star couldn't help but laugh. She slammed her cup of tea onto the table, "You've got to be kidding me. Sorry, Ta-kun, but I don't trust your readings at all. Too inconsistent."

"Not everyone can be as good as you are," he said, thoroughly annoyed now. Star shook her head.

"Look, I have to go," she said as she stood up. She grabbed the tarot deck and book and walked over to the cash register. "So, I'll just pay for this and then I'll be leaving."

They handled the transaction in silence, neither daring to say a word. Star walked out of the door, a paper bag tucked under her arm and she walked home. They no longer lived in Hitomi's mother's house. Hitomi had finally saved up enough money to buy a fairly nice house somewhat near the school. Star walked upstairs and flopped backwards onto her bed. She took the book out of her bag and took out her tarot deck.

She easily picked out one card, 'The Death.' It was a beautiful card, a skeletal dragon stood with a scythe between its claws. "Aiichirou," she said quietly.

As the girl rubbed the glossy new card between her fingers an image snapped before her eyes, blocking out all her other senses. Surrounded by a sea of dead bodies stood Hitomi, tall and proud, beside a beautiful white machine that glowed red from both the blood it stood in, and the eerie light of the setting sun. Someone stood atop the giant, staring, completely absorbed, at the fading sun. Suddenly a pair of wings of such a pure white that they seemed to glow sprouted from his back. Feathers fell all around the four of them; the winged figure, Hitomi, Star, and the great machine. Star held out a hand to catch the falling feathers, to see if she could feel them, wondering if this was real. As soon as the pure white feather touched her skin, she felt a searing pain in her scar that ran up her arm and down her spine. The young woman screamed in pain and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the vision had faded and she was once again lying on her bed, the 'Death' now lay on the floor beside her bed.

Star turned over, feeling as if she was going to throw up. She took a few moments to gather herself before abruptly pushing herself off the bed and walking over to the door. Hitomi was needed somewhere, to that place that was always in the back of the emerald-eyed woman's mind, Gaea. The raven-haired, blue-eyed teenager opened the door, just a crack at first, to see if her cousin was home yet. Hitomi needed to be trained if she was indeed to save Gaea once more.

Hitomi had yet to arrive back at home. So, while she debated on a way of telling her cousin that Star had read her, Hitomi's, thoughts, she decided to release her own frustration. She closed her eyes and reached out at something. Something seemed to be drawing her hand toward it, and with her eyes still closed she muttered something quickly under her breath and opened a pocket in space.

The young woman had to keep her eyes closed while feeling blindly through her storage area. If she opened them, the pocket would close and her arm would be stuck on the other side. She felt cool metal against her open palm and clasped her hand around it, quickly pulling it out of the pocket before opening her eyes. It was her sword alright. For some reason it felt so natural to use it, to hold it in her hands, to slice the blade through the air.

She unsheathed the sword and practiced a few passes before once again sheathing the blade and taking a quick shower. By the time she got out dressed in her comfortable baggy pajamas, her hair wet hair clinging to her skin she heard the front door open. "Thanks, Bureiku…" she heard her cousin's voice ring throughout the house. Star noted smugly that Hitomi's voice had a definite trace of embarrassment to it. "I had a great time. I'll see you tomorrow."

Star leaned over the banister to get a good look at the scene below her. She stepped on top of the railing and jumped down to the level below. Hitomi was startled; Bureiku looked like he was going to have a heart-attack. He hadn't been around enough to be used to the girl's antics. "Sorry," the girl said sarcastically, she was obviously anything but sorry as a smirk spread across her face. "She's busy; I don't think she can make it for your little date tomorrow. Bye-bye," she waved before slamming the door in his face.

Hitomi looked angrily at her cousin. "What was that for?" she asked. Though Star openly showed her animosity towards her older cousin's boyfriend, she had never yet done something so cruel.

"You are officially in training," the younger woman said, as if explaining the obvious.

"Training? What—" Star cut Hitomi off, "Gaea needs you. You'll be going back soon, so I'm going to make sure you're ready for it."

Hitomi silently opened and closed her mouth; then she said, "How do you know about Gaea?" Star couldn't help but smile at the faint note of panic in the girl's voice.

The younger girl gave her an annoyingly smug look, "You have no idea how loudly you think," she said. Her look was made all the more annoying by the girl's know-it-all attitude and tone of voice. "You're too weak to save Gaea, much less your own neck. I will never understand how you managed it last time, must have been some lucky fluke. But I'm going to make sure you do it right this time. No relying on luck to help you out…"

"How…how do you know Gaea's in danger?" the panic in her voice rose and the woman's voice was pitched slightly higher than was natural. She knew that Star had amazing abilities, just as the letter all those years ago had warned her, but she had no idea that her cousin had grown this much. It was beginning to scare her, how little she knew about her own family.

"Come on," Star grabbed onto Hitomi's sleeve and pulled her up to her bedroom. Star never actually touched a person if she could get away with it. Every time she did, though, she flinched horribly. Star herself would have liked very much to, at that moment, kick her cousin. But, too afraid of being left alone again, she decided against it. She choked back a tear, thinking back on the day that she was left so alone in the world, the day all optimism had died within her, as well as the day all her loved ones died before her. "You're doing a tarot reading."

Hitomi gave her cousin a puzzled look and let herself be dragged upstairs. "What am I reading for?" she asked as she caught sight of her cousin's new deck. So that was what the girl had been doing, out buying a new deck. It was certainly beautiful.

"Don't touch that!" Star reached out and snatched the deck, with 'The Death' still face-up on the top. "You're using your own deck. After all, that's the one you'll be taking with you to Gaea. And as for what you're reading for? Ask about your beloved Bureiku." Hitomi shuffled the cards and prepared them for a three card spread when Star put her hand on top of the center card. "Don't be lazy. You're doing the full Celtic Cross. You haven't done one since you came back from Gaea, if I'm correct," she gave her cousin a look that seemed to say, 'And I know I am.' Of course, she did indeed know that she was correct; after all, she had heard the like from her cousin's very thoughts.

Hitomi reshuffled the cards and spread them out in the more complicated Celtic Cross spread that Star loved so much. She turned each one over in turn and muttered something quietly as she looked at the face of each card. Finally, she came to the last one. Apprehensive and shaking slightly, she flipped it over and dropped immediately. The face of 'The Tower' lay on the table before her. Once again, she was face to face with the card of distant separation.

"Not again," the young woman covered her face with her hands. It was true. Just as before, she would be returning to the mystical world where the moon and Earth hung in the brilliant night sky. Had she been paying attention, she would have noticed the satisfied smirk on Star's face.

-The next day-

Once again, Star had decided to skip school. She had awoken just before Hitomi came into her room. But apparently, the older girl had too much on her mind, for when she saw that her cousin was, by all appearances, still asleep, she had left quietly in an attempt to not disturb the already wakeful girl. Once she was sure that Hitomi had left for work, the girl grabbed 'The Death' from the top of the deck and flipped it between her fingers.

After all, Hitomi was leaving, too, just like everyone else. She might never come back. Star did not want to watch someone else important to her leave her life, possibly forever. Even with all the power Star had, for she knew that at this point it seemed to be limitless, she still could not prevent the important people in her life from leaving her.

Conversations with Tasumi had become strained ever since a week ago when he had told her that he was going back to America for a while, or possibly forever. And now, Hitomi was leaving as well.

Star had the sudden urge to turn over onto her side and just curl up, to stay that way for an eternity, waiting for life to pass her by. Instead, she sufficed with throwing the card into the air. The girl held out her hand to catch it, but it did not fall back. Star moved her hand and saw that the card hovered above her. A bright light burst from the scythe of the skeletal dragon and engulfed the teenager, a look of the utmost surprise on her face.

Meanwhile, Hitomi stood on the track. School had just ended, possibly her last until she returned to Gaea; to Van. She had often thought about the young man, but never had the prospect of meeting him once more been so close. Never had her memories of him been so close to the surface, never had they been so clear.

"This is where I met him," she smiled a little, remembering how rude he had been. How she had saved his life. How he had saved hers. How the brilliant light had engulfed the two of them, transporting her from the life she had known and throwing her into a completely different world. "Van…" The light from her memories seemed to be growing stronger. Hitomi opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by a pillar of brilliant light. She was going back.

-Gaea—

Star gasped for breath, she had just landed in the most uncomfortable position imaginable and all the wind had been knocked out of her. She looked around her; she was definitely not at home anymore. As if some force was pulling her chin up, she looked at the blue afternoon sky and saw one of the last things she had expected. The Earth and the Moon hung above her in the sky, just as she had seen in some of Hitomi's more vivid memories.

The girl stood up and winced slightly, nothing more than a bruised and a few reopened wounds. Suddenly realizing that she was still holding her tarot deck, she stuffed the cards into one of her large pockets and closed her eyes. She muttered something and held out her hand, good; her pocket in space was still available to her. She searched inside for her sword, still there, even better. Her sword was easily accessible.

She heard one of the nearby bushes rustle, and the teenager spun to face it, putting up her guard. At that moment a young boy, for lack of a better word on Star's part, stood up from behind the bushes and brushed bits of twigs and leaves out of his hair and off his clothes. He looked about Star's age, though she wasn't really focusing on that aspect of him. The young woman was slightly more worried about the fact that he looked as if he was part wolf. That was definitely not normal. "What the hell are you?" she asked rudely, interrupting the silence. He seemed to notice her for the first time and he just stared at her for a moment with his unsettling unblinking black eyes. Before Star knew it, she found herself running at top speed away from a bunch men and women who also looked as though they were part wolf.

She heard a voice in the distance, and though she told herself she wasn't going to go in that direction, she ended up following it anyway. When she reached a clearing, she caught sight of a tall blond boy with short blond hair. Had the young woman cared about him and not about the fact that she was being chased by who-knows-what, she would have noticed that he was exceptionally handsome.

The boy caught sight of her, and for a long moment, the two teens seemed entranced. They stared at each other for a long time, until the moment was broken by the emergence of Star's pursuers. The blond boy whipped out his sword. It seemed as if it was such a natural movement, Star wouldn't have been surprised if this newcomer had held a sword his entire life. Star's mob of angry followers stopped when they caught sight of him.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asked. He had a lovely voice, sweet and calming, deep yet not so much so that it was unattractive. It reminded Star of honey.

One of the furry men stepped forward, "We could ask the same of you, Duke Freid. What brings you to this part of Gaea?"

The boy sheathed his sword and looked at the man in a way that seemed to make the much taller man shrink down. "I am here on a special request by Lord Van. Do you remember Hitomi?" Star's ex-pursuers nodded as if to say they would never be able to forget her, "I'm looking for her. Have any of you seen her?"

"No one but her," the man pointed an accusing finger at Star, who, though she wanted to back down, stared coolly back at him.

"Don't talk about me as if I'm not here," she said, her voice so chilly that her pursuers gave an involuntary shudder. "And Duke Whatever-Your-Name-Is," she regained her snappy, sarcastic tone of voice very quickly; "I didn't need your help. I was doing just fine on my own, thanks." As she turned to walk away, the young woman felt a sharp pain shoot up her arm from her wrist and she knew that once again the scar had appeared on her wrist.

"Wait!" The boy yelled, grabbing the wrist with the scar. He let go very quickly and looked down at his hand as if the touch of her skin had burned him.

Star turned around and glared at the young man, "Why should I?" her tone of voice could have frozen fire.

Surprisingly enough, he smiled. The young woman was very taken aback, "Because," the boy began, "you don't know your way around here, do you?" When Star didn't say anything he spoke again, apparently trying to be kind and conversational. "You dress like Hitomi…"

"Don't you dare compare me to her!" the young woman snapped cruelly, now it was the boy's turn to look astonished. Star turned around and ran in the other direction.

"I was only…" he shook his head, as if having determined that it would be completely useless to attempt to explain himself and ran after her. "What's your name? You can call me Chid," somehow he was keeping up with Star. She was not used to that.

"You don't need to know," then she decided to add haughtily, "I won't be here long, anyway."

The boy—Chid, was it?—gave her an incredulous look which his voice only managed to magnify, "You know a way to get back to the Mystic Moon?"

"If there's a way in, there's a way out," Star said exasperatedly, as if stating the obvious, which, she felt, she was. Star heard something rustling in the bushes a good deal ahead of her and she smiled. At least she wouldn't be leaving the boy all by his lonesome. "And this is where I leave you, Duke Freid," she said, refusing to call him by his name, and exaggeratedly saluting him before changing pace.

Unfortunately, Chid was still keeping up with her. _How can this royal pain-in-the-ass be keeping up with me?_ She thought, not intending the pun that wormed its way into her thoughts.

"Allen!" he was obviously yelling to the people Star had heard behind the bushes, "Van! Blai! Merle!" Most of the names sounded familiar, from Hitomi's thoughts, but one did not.

Star swiftly kicked her 'companion' and sprinted off again in a different direction. "Damn it! Shut up and leave me alone!" she yelled as she did so.

The young girl crashed into something, or someone, that was so rudely blocking her way. She looked up and five new figures stood facing her. With whatever dignity she could muster, and she had quite a lot of dignity, she stood up and stared at them with her cold blue eyes, not even bothering to brush herself off.

As she examined the newcomers she couldn't help be relieved that they weren't covered in fur…at least, four of the five weren't. The fifth looked like she was part cat, rather than the wolf-men she had inconveniently met with earlier. Star gasped as she recognized one of the people, Hitomi! "What the hell is going on here!" she asked her cousin.

"We're in Gaea," Hitomi said happily, a smile lit up her face. Star wanted to smile, too, being here made her cousin so happy. But she couldn't let Hitomi know that she, Star, actually cared.

"Yeah, I think I've noticed," the teenager growled, "but I don't want to be in happy little Gaea. It makes me sick. How do I get back?"

"I'm sorry," said the tall black-haired man standing next to Hitomi. He didn't sound all that sorry, "You can't leave until you've helped us."

Star stared at him a moment and searched the memories she'd seen inside her cousin's head. "You're Van Fanel," she said slowly. He looked slightly shocked that she knew her when they had never met, "Well," Star regained her snappy, sarcastic tone of voice, "You're much better than Pretty Boy Bureiku. Still," she shrugged her shoulders, "I don't understand _what_ Hitomi saw in you." Actually, Star had noticed that Van was quite handsome.

The boy next to him glared at Star angrily. He looked like a younger version of Van, probably almost exactly as the King of Fanelia had looked when he and Hitomi had first met. Van looked as though he would have seriously liked to hit her, but Hitomi stopped him. "Hitomi," his voice was oddly strained, "we've rebuilt Fanelia. Take a look, you can stay in the castle as long as you like. I hope you didn't forget your way around."


	3. Vision

**Disclaimer**: I will not write another disclaimer for this story again. For the last time, I do not own EscaFlowne or any of its characters or places etc. But I do own a few select characters, as well as cities and other locations, mentioned in this fiction.

**Fortune 3-Vision**

"It's beautiful," Hitomi gasped at the sight of the city below her. It was true, after all, the last time she had seen this place it had been destroyed by Melefs. "It looks better than before." Which wasn't a lie, it indeed looked very similar to how it had before, but something about it made it look different, brighter, happier even.

Star took this moment to reveal her sarcastic cynicism, "Great for you," she said in an all-too-obviously falsely cheery voice, "I'm so glad for you, Fanelia." The false cheeriness died quickly, "Now, let's get going. I can only stare at one thing for so long…" she pretended to gag.

Van stared a moment, stunned. He opened his mouth to snap back at her, but Hitomi laid a hand on her shoulder, "We're not in Japan anymore," she said, suddenly completely responsible. "Things are done differently here."

"Really, I never would have guessed," the teenager said dryly, "Besides," she regained her rude, snappish tone, "I don't give a damn about where the hell we are. I'll act the way I always act. And I need to get home," her voice suddenly softened, which took the others by surprise. "There's something important that I need to take care of tomorrow. If I miss it, I will…" her voice trailed off menacingly. "I need to get away; you guys are making me sick."

Once again, Van opened his mouth to say something, but Hitomi just shook her head and gave him a meaningful look. With obvious difficulty he closed his mouth and led them to the castle in the center of Fanelia. Oftentimes he found himself throwing agitated, yet curious, glances back at the younger girl from the Mystic Moon. He had assumed that all the people there were like Hitomi, how wrong he was.

"Blai," Van was obviously struggling to keep a civil tongue, "why don't you show…umm…" he didn't recall having ever been told the girl's name.

"Star, she's my cousin," Hitomi said quickly, before her sharp-tongued cousin could say anything else to dig her deeper into the trouble she had already begun to be submerged under.

"Show her a room, will you? We all need to talk, join us when you're done…"

The boy who looked like a younger Van, but for his bright blue eyes, shrugged, looking about as enthusiastic as the girl, "So," he said, trying very hard to be friendly, "your name's Star? That's definitely original," the two of them walked into the castle, a little bit behind the others who were chatting unconcernedly, apparently catching up on however many years it had been since they had last seen each other, "did your parents…?"

"Shut up!" The girl yelled, Blai turned around and he quailed under her icy cold glare, "I don't give a damn who the hell you are, but you have no right to go meandering into my private life. You know what? I don't give a damn which room you were planning on giving me, I'm perfectly fine here," she flung open the door to the nearest room and walked in.

Blai watched as she slammed the wooden door in his face, completely stunned. "What's her problem?" He was sure that no matter what, the two of them would never be able to get along. The sooner she got out of Gaea, and out of his hair, the better. For all he cared, he never wanted to even hear her name again. He put his hands behind his head and walked down the hall to where he knew his father and the others would be waiting.

-Another part of the castle-

They heard a knock and all heads turned towards the door as Blai walked in, his hands folded behind his head. The boy looked slightly annoyed; then again, anyone would be after spending any amount of time alone with Star. They had apparently been catching up on the time lost before the boy had arrived. Now that he was there, they decided to get back to the matter at hand.

"So, why did you call me back, Van?" Hitomi asked. She knew she was pretty much useless without her pendant, the one she had given Van so long ago. "I thought everything was over, Zaibach was stopped…what's going on?"

"It isn't Zaibach," said the blonde woman, she shifted slightly, after all, she had been part of that 'Zaibach thing.' "Things have started happening about seven years after you went back to the Mystic Moon," she said vaguely.

Hitomi looked questioningly at her? "'Things'?"

The man next to her spoke, his long blond hair tied in a loose ponytail, "Disappearances, new Guymelefs, towns being destroyed…"

"Seven years?" Hitomi asked more to herself than to anyone else, "I wonder…" she shook her head. The others looked at her, expecting her to clarify herself. Instead she said, "Thanks, Celena."

Van looked slightly worried, "A few neighboring cities have been attacked. We haven't so much as seen a glimpse of one of these new Melefs yet, but without the EscaFlowne we might not be able to protect Fanelia. I couldn't last time, even with the EscaFlowne…"

"That's why Van invited me here," the blond man said, "to help him protect Fanelia. I couldn't leave my sister behind," he smiled at Celena who grinned back.

No one spoke for a moment, but most eyes flickered uncomfortably to Chid. "Freid was one of the first to have been attacked," he said mournfully, "now I know how you must have felt during the battle against Zaibach, Van. Fried was destroyed, even Asturia was attacked."

"It took a great deal of damage," the blond-haired man looked pained as he said it.

Chid nodded sadly, "Even with Allen at their side."

It took a moment for the news to sink in for Hitomi, "Asturia?" She gasped, "What about Millerna? Is she alright?"

"She is fine," Allen smiled at Hitomi's evident sigh of relief. It was strange, when they first met she hadn't really liked the young woman, but as time went on she couldn't help but to become attached. "She should be meeting us shortly."

Before anyone could say anything else, Van decided this would be the perfect moment to cut in and completely change the mood of the entire conversation, "Hitomi, we need you to help us find the EscaFlowne again." Everyone suddenly became tense.

"What are you talking about, Van?" she had seemed least affected by the change in conversation, "Don't you remember where you hid it?"

"He should," Blai spoke suddenly for the first time since the discussion began. "But the EscaFlowne disappeared a little after we heard the news about Asturia from Millerna. No one has any idea what happened to it, that's why my father called you back from the Mystic Moon." His eyes glimmered suddenly, "They said that you can find anything. You can find where things are and even tell the future," Van shot his son a warning look and he quickly changed the subject once again, "What is the problem with that other girl…Star? I mean, I heard all about you when I was younger, I thought everyone from the Mystic Moon was like that…She definitely doesn't fit that idea."

Silently, the others all agreed, they had just been too polite to say anything before. They were all slightly relieved at the young prince's bluntness. "Star is my cousin," Hitomi started very carefully, taking her time to choose the right words. "She's lived with me for the past ten or so years. She also happens to be an amazing psychic, and she knows it. I don't think she'd appreciate my saying anything, but she went through a horrible ordeal when she was younger…

"And as for the way she acts," Hitomi went on, "it might just be her way of showing that she cares." Van and Blai were the only ones that weren't too polite to look incredulous. "I found her on the street in front of my house hoping to die after her mother died in a fire that destroyed her house. She's probably just afraid of getting hurt again."

A long silence followed Hitomi's words. They all suddenly changed their attitudes towards the young girl and now they pitied her, all but one. "Yeah, right," Blai said rudely, "If you really cared about someone you wouldn't hurt them, no matter the circumstances."

"I guess you'd have to ask her," Hitomi smiled, "I have a feeling you're going to be able to break a lot deeper into her shell than I ever could." The woman yawned widely, "It's getting late and it's been a pretty long day. Do you remember which room I stayed in last time?

"Merle will show you, and I'll have her wake you up for breakfast tomorrow, too," Van said, also trying desperately to hold back a yawn.

"Lord Van!" Merle whined as he left the room. One by one the room emptied until only Hitomi remained standing in the very center, the lights flickering around her. "I'm sorry, Star, it's my fault that you're stuck here."

-The next day-

Star awoke submerged beneath a sea of silk bed sheets. She wasn't awake enough to register the change. Nor had she remembered even falling asleep. "Wake up, Star!" Hitomi? "It's time for breakfast," that had to be Hitomi's voice. Star took a moment to check her internal clock.

"What time is it?" It felt late, very late. School would have started at least an hour ago, what was Kanzaki still doing there?

A pause, then, "About nine, why?" she asked.

"Nine!" Star hopped up from beneath the covers, "What's wrong with you, Kanzaki? You're going to be late for…" she stopped, taking in her surroundings and suddenly bombarded with memories of the night before. She was no longer at home. Hell, forget being home, she wasn't even on Earth anymore.

Hitomi ignored her cousin's question, interpreting correctly the abrupt silence, "Will you eat with us?" it sounded more like a desperate plea than a question. "Put on some nice Fanelian clothes and come down to join us. Then you can do whatever you want. Just try to be nice, we are their guests after all."

Star snorted, then sighed, and mumbled incoherently, "Fine."

The older woman must have heard it through the door. "Great!" she said, enthusiastically, "Merle and I put a lot of different Fanelian clothes at the foot of your bed, we weren't sure what you would like best…I'll wait outside."

The teenager looked at the pile of clothes at the foot of her bed and sighed. What a hassle. She picked up the first thing on the pile…a pink skirt…Star shook her head, apparently her cousin didn't know her as well as she thought she did. She dug around a bit and pulled out a comfortable black tee with red laces going half-way down the front and a pair of baggy black pants.

She pulled the clothes on and opened her pocket in space to grab a bit of eyeliner. When she was done she admired her image in the large, full-length mirror. Star nodded slightly, the black dragon's wings she had just painted onto her face were definitely a nice touch. She put the eyeliner back into her pocket in space and pulled out her sword, which she strapped comfortably to her side.

"After this breakfast thing," Star said as she emerged from the room, "I'm going out back." Hitomi jumped up from her seated position on the uncomfortable, hard floor.

Excited, the older girl ran down the hall, she stopped about halfway down and called, "You'd better hurry up or you'll get lost!"

"Somehow, I doubt that," Star muttered under her breath, definitely not loud enough for her cousin to hear. Though she hadn't heard, Hitomi had stopped running and waited for the younger girl to catch up with her, completely aware of the fact that Star did not feel much like running. They walked in silence, side-by-side, until they came up to two large doors, which Star pushed open with ease.

Stars eyes scanned the room and immediately rested on the large table laden with piles of magnificent looking, and even better smelling, food. Though she would never admit it, the girl was starving and would have very much liked to shove as much in her mouth as she could hold. She managed to restrain herself from the impulse and glided easily over to a chair as far off from the others as she could manage to find while still having access to the food.

Van looked up when he heard the chair scrape against the floor and his eyes met Hitomi. They flickered quickly to Star and back. "What? Merle didn't wake you up?" he joked.

"Very funny, Lord Van," the cat-girl pouted slightly.

On the other side of the table, Blai had neglected his food and stared at Star, dressed in Fanelian clothing as if trying to mock it. He shook his head, how could this girl, with her black hair died blood-red at the tips and dark dragon wings painted around her eyes, ever look even remotely Fanelian? Just her wearing the clothes was a complete and utter insult.

"You're still wearing those clothes from the Mystic Moon," Van laughed. Blai shook his head, she obviously wasn't. He was going to point this out when he caught sight of Hitomi. Oh, that was what he had meant. It took a moment before the thought dawned on him.

Star grabbed something that looked like a bright red apple, but when she bit into it, it tasted like a ripe mango. "Eat something," Van said the moment the girl had bitten into the strange fruit. He eyed her, intense annoyance flashing on his face, but he restrained himself from saying anything. Hitomi nodded and smiled while she, too, helped herself to the delicious looking food in front of her.

The teenage girl stood up and her chair fell backwards. She took another bite of the fruit before walking over to the door and saying, "See you later, Kanzaki."

It wasn't too hard to find the courtyard at the very center of the castle garden. By the time she had gotten there, though, she had completely finished the fruit and was wiping her now sticky hands on her dark pants.

She caught sight of the King-Van-wanna-be whose name she couldn't quite remember and called out to him. "Do you have any dead roses?" Preferably red, and long dead, but she didn't think he'd listen to her specifications.

The boy raised an eyebrow, he didn't look too thrilled and neither did his little group of friends. "Yeah," of course, roses didn't last forever; wherever there were live roses there would be a few dead ones.

"Good," she turned and before saying anything further on her motives, she walked away. Blai and his friends watched her retreating back.

When they thought she was out of earshot they started talking about her in hushed voices. "Who's the freak?" one of them laughed cruelly.

Blai shrugged, "Some piece of trash Hitomi accidentally dragged down from the Mystic Moon."

"What's her deal?" another asked rudely.

Blai shrugged again, "As if I care," before he knew it, he felt someone punch him in the face. He blinked back a few tears and Star blurred into focus. She had punched him, but apparently he had it the easiest of the three. His other two friends had been kicked in places that Blai did not want to think about.

"You bastards," Star hissed before running back off in the direction of the rose garden. Blai looked at the ground and what he saw took a few moments to register with him. Tiny wet spots in the dirt where bitter tears had hit the ground.

Star found the rose garden fairly easily, and by the time she got there the tears in her eyes had dried up, for this she was grateful. For some reason she always felt so much closer to everyone when she was surrounded by roses, as if they were watching over her, could see her. She did not like the idea of them thinking she was weak; she would not let them see her cry.

She was so preoccupied that as she searched for a few select red roses she didn't even notice that she was being watched, nor did she pay any mind to the cuts and bruises that were forming from the thorns.

After Star had gathered her dozen and one roses she made her way back to a pond that she had passed on her way to the roses. She sat; her legs crossed, and stared out at the water. Suddenly she straightened up a little, as if just now realizing that she had a handful of flowers. One by one, she threw the long dead, faded roses into the water and watched them float on the surface.

Thirteen roses…one for each person that had died for her, trying to save her and two for the person whose life mattered the most to her, dear, sweet Aiichirou.

All this time she had managed to bottle up her tears, saving them now for the ones that counted, the last four roses.

Behind a clump of bushes, Blai and his friends struggled silently for the best openings in the leaves, curious to see what the stranger was doing, and why she had wanted those dead roses so desperately as to ask for help. As the girl sat down, they noticed old scars underneath the sleeves of her shirt and around her ankle. The saw no more as she planted herself firmly on the ground. She paused at the ninth rose and Blai wondered what kind of thoughts must have been going through her head. All this to throw a bunch of dead roses into the water and watch them drift by. He was starting to get bored.

Star put the remaining roses down, all except for one. She finally let herself cry, feeling the tears flowing down her cheeks. She caught a lone tear in the center of the rose and watched it for a moment before leaning forward and gently, lovingly, placing this rose on the water's surface. "Arekusa," she said, fighting to keep her voice as steady as possible through the sea of tears that was leaking from her eyes. This was the one day of the year she would let herself cry, the one day of the year that she was closest to all of the people who had sacrificed themselves, the anniversary of the day she had received the scar on her wrist. "It's been ten years," she tried to laugh, "it feels so much longer. I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you, I'm so sorry that I was so weak back then. Maybe I'll be able to meet you again before you can add an eleventh rose to your collection."

"What's she doing?" one of the boys whispered behind the bushes, hoping that the girl wouldn't be able to hear them.

"You're asking me?" Blai asked sarcastically. How in the world should he know what sort of deranged thoughts were flying through her head?

"Sh!" Blai's other friend hissed from his other side, "If you listen really carefully you can hear what she's saying." Blai and his friends quieted and listened.

She looked at the tenth rose and watched as she caught two tears in its center. They died it's already dark petals and make them look velvety and welcoming. As she placed the rose on the water she said, "Papa…I'm so sorry, I couldn't keep my promise." She could almost hear his voice in the wind…no, wait, that wasn't her Papa. _Damn_, she thought, _I knew I should have checked more carefully before I started. Oh well, can't stop now, only a few more to go._ "I couldn't be the kind of person you wanted me to be. I just wish," she felt as if she was choking on something deep in her throat. Words failed her for a few moments, then she took a deep breath and went on. "I just wish you did have to leave me like that."

Unbeknownst to her, as she reached for the eleventh flower, the rose had fallen onto its side, its tears mingling with the water of the pond.

"Why's she doing that?" Blai asked curiously, more to himself than his companions. Apparently, they hadn't caught on to that.

"I haven't the foggiest," said the first boy. "Do you think she notices us?" he asked when she paused for a long moment.

Blai shook his head, "Of course not," he said knowingly, "if she had she would have chased us away."

She lifted the eleventh rose and let three tears fall into its center. "There's no way," she started as she watched this rose drift out onto the water, "there's just no way I am as important as you said I am, Mama. I just…I just wanted to go home where I knew you would be there to tell me it was alright. I just wanted you to say everything was going to turn out okay. Why did you stay during the fire? You could have gotten out, then everything would have been alright. We could have gone on living like a family, just the two of us…"

As Star picked up the twelfth rose the one that she had dedicated to her mother had fallen on its side, also leaking its contents into the water. "She keeps talking to people when she puts a flower on the water," one of the boys pointed out.

"If those are all people that she's lost in her life…" Blai let his voice trail off.

"Yeah, but does that excuse her from her rudeness?" the boy asked apprehensively.

The other boy, the one on Blai's left, hissed angrily, "Of course not. No one has the right to treat the Fanelian prince that way." But Blai remained silent, intently watching the scene playing out before him.

The girl unsheathed her sword and the boys drew in their breath. She had finally noticed them. But no, instead she pulled all the petals off the twelfth rose. In a swift motion, Star had sliced her arm with the sword and let the blood run down the blade, to its tip. She then stabbed each of the petals, just lightly enough that a trace of her blood was left on every single one.

She gathered the petals in one hand as she lay her sword down gently on the grass with the other. She lifted her hand with the rose petals over the water and opened it, letting them drift slowly, silently to the water's surface. "These are for the wounds that made their way into my heart that day so long ago, these are the wounds that will never heal," she said as she watched them fall. Star looked wistfully at the sky for a moment before picking up the last rose, the thirteenth.

The young woman took off one of her gloves and held the rose firmly in her hand, letting the thorns dig deeply into her skin. She cried harder, though still silently, than before and let all the tears flow into the center of the rose. Then she gently held the flower with her other hand as she let a few drops of blood from her palm trickle into the rose and mix with the water. She watched it swirl together a moment before once again placing the flower on the water. Miraculously, and against all laws of physics, it remained floating.

She slid the glove over her hand once more and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes. "Aiichirou," she said softly. She had thought that her eyes were dry, but she must have been wrong. Just the sound of his name cause more tears to fall down her face. "I'm a lot stronger now," she laughed a little, but it sounded strange through her tears. "But I'm still not nearly as strong as you. I'll get stronger. I'll be like you; I will never forget you as long as I live, big brother…for now I will live for the both of us. Until the curse that I must have finally catches up with me. Until I meet up with the curse that took you away…" Her voice trailed off and she couldn't speak any more.

Star was silent for a moment before she stood up and wiped her face on her shirt. The dragon's wings she had drawn so carefully around her eye were smudged and lines of black and red streaked down her face where the eyeliner met with her tears. Considering what they had just seen, the boys remained still, now afraid of the disheveled, yet still menacing, looking girl.

The teenager spun around to face the bush that Blai and his friends had taken shelter behind. She glared at it as if it had offended her somehow. The fact that her eyes were red from crying managed to make her look all the more terrifying. "I know you're there," she growled, her voice raspy and hoarse yet frightening, "so just get up."

Blai and his friends stood wearily, quailing slightly under Star's gaze. She looked at the young prince, "Should have known you were behind this," she said coolly.

"What was that about?" one of Blai's friends asked curiously, after he had mustered up the courage to speak.

Star glared at him and he shrunk back, "Why the hell should you care?"

"Why didn't you say anything before if you knew we were here?" Blai asked, hoping to turn her attention from his friend to him.

It worked, "I can't stop in the middle," she said, her voice softening slightly and surprising the boys to no end.

Somehow, Blai sensed her oncoming tears, and subconsciously wanted to make her feel better. His wings sprouted from his back and feathers danced around them in the wind. Star looked up at the sky and held out a hand, by this time the two teenagers had completely forgotten the others. A shining silver feather fell into her gloved palm and suddenly Star felt as if she was on fire and the world went black.

In her mind's eye, Star saw Fanelia, engulfed with death and destruction. The blood red sky of the setting sun was reflected in the sea of blood that flooded through the once beautiful city. The crimson red liquid splashed around the girl's feet and she chanced a look up, into the distance. Giant robots clashed and the sound of their swords against armor rang through the air. Star looked frantically around, her footsteps splashing in the blood that surrounded her. Anyone, any friendly face. Suddenly, her eyes caught Hitomi's familiar brown hair and brilliant green eyes, the girl sighed with relief. She tried in vain to stop the relieved grin from spreading across her face and ran towards her cousin. Try as she might, she never seemed to get any closer. In fact, Hitomi appeared to be getting farther and farther and Star took each step, though the older girl was not moving an inch, her eyes locked onto Star's. The blade from a sword of one of the great machines pierced through Hitomi's stomach and both girls fell to the ground.

The image dissolved around her, as if it had been made of a shower of water droplets, and one thought immediately crossed the young woman's mind. She had to warn Hitomi and the others. She jumped up and pushed Blai and his friends out of the way. Ignoring the falling feathers as well as the stunned boys, she sprinted back to the castle.

Van and the others were discussing what to do and how best to defend Fanelia in case of attack when Hitomi gasped and her eyes became diluted. "Hitomi!" Van cried as he watched her fall into her trance, something he hadn't seen in such a long time but would never be able to forget.

Hitomi stood in the midst of a Guymelef battle in the once lovely Fanelia, its buildings now tinted with the red of the setting sun. She looked down at the blood-red liquid around her feet. When she noticed that what it was she screamed; so much blood, so many people must have died. She caught sight of her cousin, running toward her in vain. Hitomi tried to reach out to the girl, but found that she couldn't move, she tried to say something, but she could not speak. With each passing moment, Star seemed to get further and further, and the look of desperation on the girl's face pained her older cousin. She felt a sharp pain and looked down as the tip of a giant blade tore through her stomach.

Hitomi screamed and fell to the ground just as Star burst through the door, looking a little worse for wear.


	4. Angel

**Fortune 4- Angel**

Star caught sight of her cousin, lying pale against the dark stone floor and the torchlight flickering on her skin. The shadow's on Hitomi's face scattered and gathered, moved forward and retreated, waltzing about the young woman's face as if dancing to a song that none but they could hear. "Hitomi, what happened? Are you alright?" the teenager bent down over her cousin to make sure she was still breathing.

Van was strangely moved by this rare display of caring from the younger girl from the Mystic Moon. "She had a vision," he started, "and then she just screamed and fell to the floor." He hated this, the feeling of not being able to do anything. Having to stand by and watch as one of the most important people in his life fell limp to the ground before his eyes. The young king pounded his fist into the thick wooden table and cursed under his breath.

The strange teenager's black-lined eyes took on a more thoughtful look. "It must have been the same…" she muttered more to herself than anyone else in the room. She was very startled to discover that the others had heard her say her thoughts aloud.

"The same?" asked Allen curiously. He reassuringly placed a hand on the young woman's shoulder and Star gave an involuntary shudder. Allen quickly withdrew his hand, curious as to why someone would be so disgusted by human touch.

Star stood up slowly and turned to face the group standing before her. Her face was almost as pale as her cousins and the shadows from the torchlight danced across her face. "I had a vision," somehow the way she said it caused an eerily chill to form in the air. Goosebumps flew up Van's arm. "Everything was red; it started to burn my eyes. Fanelia burned to ash around me while it sank beneath a sea of crimson blood against blood-red sky. Giants clashed within the remains of the city and I saw Hitomi…" the girl's voice failed her and she found that she could not go on, even if she had wanted to.

"So, that's why you were in such a hurry," Blai leaned against the wall next to the closed door. His arms were folded across his chest, "I just got here," he said, "I told the guys to leave."

The young visionary chose to ignore the boy completely, "Kanzaki must have seen the same thing," the girl was quickly gaining her composure.

Celena leaned against her brother, "The best thing for her right now would be to rest…"

The blonde woman's thought was cut off by Merle's yelling, "Wake up, Hitomi!" She slapped the woman from the Mystic Moon across the face and left a slight red mark. "Wake up!" Star noticed tears threatening to leak down the cat-woman's face.

Hitomi's eyes slowly fluttered open and she sat upright. She turned immediately to Van, paying no mind whatsoever to anyone else in the room, "Van, I saw it. Fanelia…attacked by Guymelefs. It's going to happen again." The woman held her face in her hands crying silently.

"I already told them," Star said coolly with her arms crossed over her chest. She had apparently managed to regain her composure for she was no longer pale and she spoke with her usual brisk, sarcastic tone.

"What should we do?" Chid asked nervously. After all, he had seen first hand the destruction this new enemy brought in its wake.

Star slipped into the shadows and merged with the darkness itself. "Leave," her voice seemed to say from all around the group gathered in the room. "We need to go somewhere close by, but far enough to keep us safe. Hitomi and I were meant to be the only ones here to see this destruction. There is a temple outside of Fanelia, am I right?" she asked Van, who nodded his answer, slightly stunned that the girl had known of it when she had never before been to his beloved city, "They said we should go there. It will be safe."

"And you expect us to trust you?" Blai gave a short laugh, "Yeah right. You've never been here before, how do you even know about the temple?"

Star unfolded her arms and stepped out of the shadows though they still clung desperately to the dark smudges on her face and the black clothing that clung to her, "Yes, I do expect you to trust me actually. And as to how I know? That's my own concern, not yours. Besides, if we hurry we may be able to find some information on your lost Guymelef, the EscaFlowne, right?"

Merle's eyes slit into a suspicious glare, "How do you know about the EscaFlowne?" she asked.

Rather than saying her true reasons, the teenager just smirked and crossed her arms once more before saying, "You people think almost as loudly as Kanzaki…" It was a total lie, but the morons bought it, at least that was a good thing.

Allen chose to ignore the comment, but unfortunately it was not in Van's nature to do so. Before the impulsive king could say anything, the blond knight spoke up, "I will protect Fanelia with my life."

Van immediately calmed down, "Thanks, Allen," he said somberly. He turned to the others and began shouting commands, "Merle I need you to grab Celena…"

The blonde woman shook her head and sidestepped to stand beside her older brother, "I will stay with Allen. Even if I can't do anything anymore…I'm not going to leave him alone, I don't want to be separated from him again."

Van nodded and turned once again towards Merle, "Alright then, you and Chid need to get there as quickly as possible. Carry him if you need to, Merle. He doesn't know how to get there," Chid looked insulted, of course he knew how to get to the temple. After all, he was best friends with the young impulsive prince of Fanelia and even good friends with its king. Apparently, in Van's attempt to hide his panic and nervousness, he had forgotten that fact. "I'll take Hitomi. Blai, that means you take Star."

The group split apart from the siblings and ran to the lake in the back of the castle. Star could still see the floating roses though they were quite a distance away from the lake. Van and his son spread their silvery wings. The dark-haired king held Hitomi around the waist and flew into the air; Blai grabbed the younger girl's gloved hand and took off as well.

"Great, this sucks," he murmured.

"I'm less happy about this than you are, trust me," she said, making sure her gloves were on correctly and not slipping. "This is really uncomfortable," she said conversationally after a moment of silence. At least, she spoke about as conversationally as she could get. By that time, everyone had already disappeared beyond her extraordinary range of sight.

She felt a shock run through her hands and one of the Guymelefs the maiden had seen in her vision tore through the trees. Its pilot had apparently spotted their attempts at getting away. The Melef swatted at the teenage prince and the two of them fell to the ground. Star skidded until she felt her back make painful contact with a tree trunk. The machine didn't seem to notice the girl as it stepped ever-closer to Blai, now fallen onto the ground, his wings no longer visible.

Impulsively, the young woman jumped between the machine and the fallen prince though the pain that ran up her arm from the scar on her wrist threatened to split apart her skull. The giant—Guymelef?—paused a moment, clearly not expecting such an action. But it only paused a moment before attacking the girl that stood between it and its target. Instead of using its arsenal of weapons, the Guymelef swiped at her. The girl felt the impact hit her side and she was flung out of the way.

Except…she wasn't really flung to the side. She felt as if she had flown out of her body and she was watching the events take place from her place outside of it all. Star's body screamed upon impact, but it wasn't her voice that came out. It was an unearthly sound that, had it been coming from anyone else the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck would have rose.

From her place outside of everything, she saw a faint golden glow surround her body. The girl felt herself being pulled back and suddenly she was trapped in a dark room surrounded by walls that showed the world outside. She was trapped within the confines of her own mind.

Blai was just coming to when he heard Star's unearthly shriek. His eyelids flew open and he jumped up to his feet. _What am I going to do?_ He asked himself, _Father expected me to get her there safely. And I let her die…what am I going to tell him?_

He watched with a mix of amazement and horror as the girl was surrounded by a faint golden glow and her body floated a few inches off the ground. The offending Guymelef retreated back a few steps, but was apparently too stunned, or interested, to do much else.

A huge dragon coiled around her and protectively wrapped its great wings about her, shielding her from view. The dragon faded away with the pulsating light and where Star once floated above the ground was another girl. Her blonde hair and white skirt whipped around her as she landed gently on the ground.

She looked around her and, "Finally! I'm out!" she cried, throwing back her head and arms and blinking in the sunlight. "Sorry, Star," she said, "but you never would have been able to deal with this on your own." The woman seemed to notice the enemy Melef for the first time. She tensed up and got into a fighting stance.

"Who are you?" Blai asked curiously, still unable to move from his spot.

Her attention still focused on the Melef before her, "Sani," she answered shortly before wings of such a pure white that they glowed blue tore painfully from the back. The young woman leapt into the air, her powerful wings stirring the foliage and dust on the ground. She muttered something inaudible and as she spoke a basketball-sized ball of light formed between her palms.

Sani flung the orb at the Guymelef, which attempted in vain to block the light. Just as the light must have faded from the pilot's eyes, the strange girl jumped up and landed a kick to the machine's head. Blai watched the Melef fall to the ground; she must have some power to have been able to knock over something like that. He felt someone lifting him up and heard Sani say quietly in his ear, "We'll get there much faster if I fly," when Blai looked up he saw a kind, gentle smile on her face. It was a look that the young prince couldn't help but instantly trust. When she picked the boy up he noticed the strange mark on her wrist…

High in a tree

A figure hidden by the shadows watched the two teenagers as Sani held onto Blai and took off into the distance. Bright eyes eagerly followed their retreating backs, "The angel, the devil, and the vessel…surrounded by both the light and the shadow of the great dragon. And so it begins," the voice said before a gust of wind ruffled the leaves of the tree and all signs of the stranger vanished.

At the temple

The strange girl placed Blai gently on the ground before softly landing herself. The moment her foot touched the ground her hair turned black and her clothes changed back to the way they had been before. Even Star's streaked make-up appeared on her face as the pupils in her blue eyes dilated and she passed out. Not exactly knowing what he was supposed to do in such an unexpected situation, Blai nervously picked her up. She was surprisingly light, he noticed before shaking the thought out of his mind and walking into the protective walls of the temple, where the others waited impatiently for their arrival.

Van looked relieved to see his only son step into the temple. Hitomi looked relieved as well, until she noticed the unconscious form of her cousin. She ran forward and Blai noticed a new person, who had previously been blocked from his view by the girl from the Mystic Moon. It was Millerna, and when she caught sight of Star, she, too, ran forward.

"Is she alright?" Hitomi asked nervously as Blai laid the girl on the ground.

Millerna took a quick check and turned to Hitomi, "She's showing the same signs you did when you met with the doppelganger, remember?" Hitomi and Van shared a nervous glance before looking back at Millerna. How could they forget? "Her heart's still beating though, which is a good sign. So, at least she's not in as bad a condition as you were then. She'll be okay," Hitomi gave a relieved sigh, "unless the land of the dead is so completely fascinating that she'll prefer to stay."

Van scowled, it was the first time Blai had seen his father give a look of such intensity, "It isn't," the king said bitterly, "trust me."

"What happened?" Merle asked after a moment of tense silence, "Hitomi had a vision before you got here. You and Star were attacked by a Melef…"

"But that _is_ what happened!" Blai said loudly. No one spoke for a moment that seemed to last for hours.

Chid broke the silence, "Then, what _did_ happen?"


	5. Legend

**Fortune 5- Legend**

Blai took a deep breath and explained just exactly what had happened on their way there. He was surprised to find how much he liked telling the story. It was interesting to watch them; they would show the perfect emotions for the right moments. It was every storyteller's dream audience. Once he had finished his tale, having tried in vain not to elaborate _too_ much, Millerna spoke out. She was apparently keen on stopping the oncoming uncomfortable silence that would have otherwise settled into the chests of the companions. "We'll have to stay here for the night," she said. "She'll need at least one night to recover, if not longer. And I want to hear her side of the story," she added. Blai sighed, so at least one of them hadn't believed the slight embellishments he'd added to his story.

"I understand, Aunt Millerna," Chid said, "but where can we rest? This place doesn't look made to accommodate overnight visitors."

Everyone's gaze shifted to Hitomi, whose own field of vision was focused on the unconscious form of her cousin. "We should listen to Millerna," she said after a moment, her eyes turning once more to her friends, "she _did_ study to be a doctor. We'll just have to make do, we did last time." Of course, last time they had all been much younger. "We can take turns on guard duty."

Van looked at her suspiciously, "And how were you planning on doing that? Allen and Sherazade were our only line of defense with the EscaFlowne gone. They're off fighting in Fanelia, and I'm pretty sure no one else here has a Melef, unless Chid's been hiding something from us. We're pretty much defenseless."

Chid looked calmly at the young king, "I assure you, if I had a Guymelef I would not have left Allen alone in Fanelia."

Hitomi sighed; Chid had apparently not caught the sarcasm in Van's voice. "I'll take the first shift, if I see anything I'll wake you guys up." No one said anything, they all knew that she was determined, and when Hitomi was determined it was very difficult to stop her. They also knew that she would be waiting to see if a vision would come to her.

Blai stood up and walked over to Star, "I'll stay up," he said, staring down at her pale face and lifeless features. Even the markings she had painted onto her face seemed duller and grayer than before all that had happened. "You should get some sleep, Hitomi. I'll stay outside." The teenage boy walked out of the temple before any of the others could say anything. He sat on the ground and kept himself awake by turning over a thousand different thoughts within his mind.

The young man was attempting to understand what had happened to him and his unlikely companion in the woods that afternoon. He had woken up to a scream and immediately assumed the girl was dead. But she had begun to glow and then there was the dragon and the strange woman. Blai's head was starting to ache and he felt slightly dizzy. The boy closed his eyes to stop the world from spinning and held his head in his hands. He had never been able to stay awake for long periods of time without starting to feel ill.

The prince felt a cold hand against his shoulder and he was about to turn around when he felt a comfortable warmth flow throughout his entire body. A soft, gentle voice said, "Go to sleep," but that seemed so far away. Blai felt himself drifting off with the comfort of the warmth and that soothing voice to send him off to his dreams.

Just as Blai was drifting off into his deep sleep two figures emerged from the shadows within the protective walls of the temple. "The Angel and the Devil both reside within the one person who struggles with the purest heart…" one of the figures said. The speaker remained shrouded in darkness while its companion stepped out of the shadows and towards Star. "Still pure of heart, I see. Perfect…"

Just as the shadowed figure's companion reached out for Star she turned over and her eyes fluttered open. Both the man and the figure remaining in the shadows cursed, "Damn it," the man said before covering Star's mouth with one of his hands, "always waking up at the wrong time." The girl's angelic blue eyes grew wide and the man picked her up with his other hand. The three figures disappeared.

Blai was dreaming, it was one of those dreams where one knows that they are dreaming yet they still can't manage to wake up. The boy found it very frustrating. He knew he _should_ be awake but he just couldn't wake himself up from within the confines of his dream. In his dream, he saw Star. A thousand different colors radiated behind her and were reflected in her eyes. The colors constantly changed, swirling and mixing, one moment they were blinding and the next they were dull. Within his dream, Blai blinked and suddenly the colors had disappeared and Star was cloaked by shadows. The young prince ran forward and moved the dark mist aside. Star was gone…

"Blai!" Van yelled, shaking his son awake. The boy's eyes snapped open and he immediately shut them against the blinding glare of the sunlight in his face. It was morning already? How long had he been asleep? And most importantly, why hadn't anyone else come to take over for him? They were surely not expecting him to sit awake the entire night…Apparently they had, for the sun was rising just above the horizon. It was barely morning.

The boy pushed his father aside and the king finally stopped shaking his son. "Yeah?" the teenager asked groggily, rubbing his eyes in hopes of their adjusting to the sudden light.

"Where is Star?" Millerna asked. She looked worried, and the look of intense apprehension on her face only made the young prince anxious as well. Did something happen while he was attempting to find a way out of his dream? "She shouldn't be able to move yet. She shouldn't even be awake!"

They heard a tap at the door and Hitomi stepped out from inside the temple. The shadows masked bits of her face. She looked so tired and yet the shadows had managed to make her look imposing. "She's gone," the woman from the Mystic Moon said quietly. "I had a vision last night while I was asleep. She was kidnapped…she just vanished into the darkness…"

"I had a dream…" Blai said suddenly. He immediately regretted it as he quailed under the stares of people he had known his entire life as well as Hitomi. "She just disappeared. But before I fell asleep I thought I heard someone's voice…" his own voice trailed off. Blai was completely aware of how stupid his comment sounded and he was reluctant to continue.

"A…voice…?" Van asked his son incredulously.

"It must have been some sort of hypnotism," Millerna theorized. Blai gave the woman a look of complete puzzlement. When someone was hypnotized, weren't they required to see the person doing the hypnotizing? Blai had seen no one, and he voiced this aloud.

"We'll figure out how they did it after we get her back," Chid said. And of course, by her he had clearly meant Hitomi's teenage cousin.

Usually he and Blai were on very good terms, having known each other for as long as Blai could remember. One might even go so far as to consider the two of them best friends. But something he couldn't explain seemed to have taken over the mind of the younger boy. "We don't have the slightest idea as to where she might be," he said coldly. "How do you expect to get around that one, Freid?" Blai smacked himself mentally, what in the world had gotten into him?

Chid looked taken aback and, seeing that he didn't know what to say, Hitomi gave the younger boy an answer. "I can use my pendent," she turned to Van, "remember?" she asked. Van nodded, he remembered all too well his attempts at mastering Hitomi's dowsing. For some reason, Van's age seemed to hit Blai at that moment. He had always understood his father's age, it wasn't as if the king was old, but he wasn't as young as he was when he went on those adventures he used to tell his son about when he was younger.

"Dowsing?" the blond woman asked thoughtfully more to herself than to anyone else in the vicinity. "Are you sure you can do it? From what you told me yesterday you only got it back yesterday. Do you remember how to do it?"

Hitomi gave a reluctant smile. It looked as if she both did and did not want to smile and what came out was somewhere in the middle. "I could never forget. Not that Star would have let me anyway." What had started as a rescue plan turned into a complaining rant, "When she found out I was coming back here she had me up the entire night perfecting my fortune telling. She called it 'training.'"

Millerna nodded, not really listening to the Hitomi's reply. The woman's mind had wandered purposefully the moment Hitomi had assured them that she could still dowse. "Dryden gave me a map…it should be somewhere around here. Oh, and he said we should all meet him back at Torienn, he's doing some business down there…"

The woman from the Mystic Moon pulled the necklace off over her head and held the pendant slightly above the paper. She took a deep breath and closed her brilliant green eyes. Hitomi moved the pendent ever-so-slightly across the page, hoping to find some sign of her cousin the way she did a long time ago. Nothing…she went over the map three times, thinking that maybe she missed something. Every time the result was the same, there was none.

"What's wrong, Hitomi?" Chid asked with some of that innocence he had so long ago and Hitomi was afraid he had lost all those years ago. "Did you forget how to do it?"

"No, it's not that. It's…I…" Hitomi seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say what she was trying to. "There's no trace of her anywhere on Gaea."

"Could they have taken her back to the Mystic Moon?" Van asked.

Hitomi looked at him worriedly and Millerna gave him a sharp look. "No, they didn't. She has to be somewhere," she said in an attempt to comfort Hitomi. "Let's meet up with Dryden first," she continued. "Maybe he can help us find her. Can you tell us again what happened? Maybe we're just missing something."

Blai sighed and told them once more what had happened to him and Star in the woods on their way from Fanelia. His eyes were focused on Millerna the entire time and when he finished his gaze remained transfixed upon her. "A dragon and a girl who goes by the name Sani, right?" she asked thoughtfully and the boy nodded his reply. "Dryden told me once a long time ago about a legend he found in a book he was trying to decipher."

Chid's eyes grew wide, "You mean _that_ legend, Aunt Millerna? The story you used to tell me a long time ago?"

Van, too, gave a look of realization and understanding. "I wonder if we're thinking the same thing. Before my father died, my mother us a Draconian legend, Folken and me, that is…" The king's voice cracked slightly and trailed off as Hitomi held him close to her as if it would help him forget the unpleasantness that was threatening to creep up on him.

"We might be," Millerna continued thoughtfully. "There was something about an angel and a devil inside a tortured soul and the purest heart…" Her voice trailed off, but in a different way that Van's had, and the woman looked at her nephew.

The blond boy shrugged, a thoughtful look on his visage, "Uncle Dryden should know it," he said.


	6. Shooting Star

**Fortune 6-Shooting Star**

_I was awake but for some reason I was having trouble moving. When I had first caught sight of the man and his companion I was going to scream, to wake the others, but they got to me before I could do that. And now—now I was tied up against an uncomfortable white bed that felt like wood beneath my back. Talk about déjà vu._

_The main difference between then and now was that I could remember being tied up. Well, all things considered, I wouldn't really call what had happened being tied up either. The man had thrown me roughly against the bed and the moment I had made contact these silver chains snaked around my arms, legs, waist, and neck. Everything was exactly the same as it had been all those years ago. The place retained that same cold, dark look like dungeon or hidden room of sorts of a very large, very lovely, very expensive mansion._

_Only problem, or the one that seemed to stand out the most in my mind, was that there was no one to protect me this time. Aiichirou, Papa, Arekusa, and the others had all sacrificed their lives last time to take me out of this very same position. And all for nothing, even though I had lost them all I found myself back here. Was this place doomed to haunt me until the day I finally died?_

_I closed my eyes and became buried deep within the darkness of my thoughts. It's strange how, when one knows that one is close to death, time becomes disproportioned. Seconds feel like minutes, minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days…_

_Though I longed for some relief from the gloom of my own thoughts that change in time wouldn't allow it. I was forced to ponder upon the horrible thoughts that were spreading through my head like wildfire. I hadn't been able to protect myself last time; I had so foolishly relied on the aid of others. And for what? To watch them die before my eyes? To land here again? How, if I couldn't do it then, was I supposed to protect myself now? There was no one to die for me this time, no one to help me out of it. I was utterly alone._

_Within those seconds that lasted for a thousand lifetimes I came to the sudden realization that, well, the past was the past. I was a different person now than I was back then when everyone had been forced to protect me because I was not capable of the task myself. I was older, stronger…I could do at least a thousand different things now that I hadn't been able to do then._

_The moment I came upon that realization, the moment that I decided I would be strong for those who had died to protect me time seemed to speed up again. Even though it was moving at its normal pace, it felt all the quicker because of how much it had slowed down while I needed to think. For some reason, this made me feel powerful, as if_ I _had some sort of control over the workings of time, of which was completely untrue. But, the teenager I was, every little thing seemed to swell the ego that was previously faltering._

_Out of the corner of my eye I watched my captor advance on my, a strange knife held in his hand. And trust me, I knew what some pretty strange weaponry looked like by that time. As he raised the blade high above me I noticed that the blade looked more like a claw than an actual blade. It was quite like the claws of the dragon I saw oftentimes in my dreams._

_The knife descended slowly (maybe time had slowed once more in my dying moments) until I felt its surprisingly cool surface against the scar upon my wrist. I had almost expected the knife to feel slimy, as if it had been slicked with the blood of the many that it must have killed since it had been pulled from the dragon. I screamed the moment I felt the cold metal, or whatever it really was, touch my skin at the center of the scar. It sent both chills and the sensation that I was on fire up and down my arm. The feelings ran down my spine and filled my entire body until I felt as if I was going to explode from the pain._

_Though I tried to stop myself from screaming I was surprised to find that I could not, as if my body was doing it on its own. I mean, I knew I sounded like one of those girls in the horror movies who scream in vain hopes that someone would hear them and come down to rescue them. One: those characters always made me want to punch the screen, and two: it wasn't as if I was screaming because I was scared. I mean, you'd scream too if you felt as if your entire body was being torn in half._

_The man hesitated a moment and dropped the knife. I wondered for a split second what he was going to do until he wrapped his hands around my neck. I had never noticed quite how small my neck was, or how big his hands were, until that very moment. He had abandoned the knife altogether and decided to suffocate me. I can't say I had liked either option very much._

_I closed my eyes and tried to think, you have no idea how hard that is when someone's trying to murder you. I mean, what else could I do? I couldn't move because of those dratted chains that bound me to the table and the man's immense weight against my neck. I forced myself to continue thinking, to stay awake, long after the point where I should have fallen into unconsciousness._

_Suddenly my eyes snapped open and I stared straight into his eyes. He closed his own eyes as if my gaze somehow hurt his own. I was starting to feel lightheaded when I heard another scream. I thought for a moment that it was my own but I soon realized that it was not. My sadistic captor, and attempted murderer, had let go of my neck as if his hands were on fire._

_I gasped for breath, grateful for whatever had happened. It was strange, but ever since the day Mama had died and Hitomi had taken me in, I found that I was able to do things that I knew weren't normal. I thought that this definitely counted under the category entitled 'Strange and abnormal.'_

_I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on the chains that bound me. I heard the man gasp in surprise and for an instant I felt as if I was floating. When I opened my eyes once more_ I _was the one who gasped. I really was floating, only a few inches above the surface of the hard wooden surface._

_Luckily for me, he had been too stupid, and in too much of a rush, to check me for weapons. I still had a Fanelian knife strapped to my leg even though he had stripped me of my more noticeable sword. He dove for his own knife and returned into view with it in his hands and a malicious glare and twisted grin directed toward me. "If the Lady hadn't asked me to finish the process," he said darkly, "I would have made sure to kill you by now."_

_I highly doubted that statement. I turned my head, though I was still lying on my back and floating inches in the air, and returned his glare with an icy gaze of my own. It was a look that I had perfected over the years and made all the more intimidating by the pure blue of my eyes. I gave him a cocky smirk before pulling myself up to a sitting position. It was a task that was much more difficult than it sounds, you trying getting into a sitting position when what you're sitting on is three inches below you. But, once again it seemed as if time itself was on my side._

_Even though I was acting that way, my mind was racing. I wanted desperately to know what he was talking about, this whole 'Lady' business. It seemed he was working on someone's orders, and I had to find out who it was. After all, this did involve my happiness, not to mention my existence from the point many years ago that I was forced to watch helplessly as my loved ones were murdered before my eyes._

_The man reached over to me but the moment his fingers touched the bare, bruised skin on my arm he yelped in pain and withdrew it. I noticed, once again, that it looked as if his hand sported a large burn mark where he had touched me. He held the knife as if ready to thrust it at me, but in one quick, fluid motion I had unsheathed the one I had hidden beneath the leg of my extremely baggy pant…stylish and functional._

_He came towards me and just as he got near enough for me to touch him with the tip of my toes I flipped off my unsettling position and landed behind him. Unfortunately, my back was still facing him, not exactly the smartest position to be in considering the circumstances. With a speed that I would not have thought possible from someone of such body composition, he came at me and thrust his knife into my stomach._

_At least, he would have done so had I not moved out of the way just in time. His blade grazed my side, though, and tore a hole through my shirt. It was a good thing it was borrowed clothes from someone I didn't even particularly like. I spun around just as he was in his most vulnerable position from the attack and kneed him in the stomach._

_The man didn't respond at all to what I had done, it was as if I hadn't done anything at all. If anything during that entire time had brought my temper boiling the surface it had definitely been his lack of reaction. I looked at cold eyes of the man who attempted to murder me and I instantly regretted it. I found myself wanting to hide, to cower in fear, a feeling I hadn't experienced since my mother died._

_In my panic I muttered something incoherent even to my own ears. But apparently my attacker had heard it for this cold, calculating gaze evaporated and his eyes grew wide with fear. It was strange, most people wouldn't have noticed it, for his eyes didn't truly go as wide as I like to imagine they had. As I've undoubtedly said before, I could do strange things that no one else could. To me, staring into a person's eyes was like looking into a doorway that showed me the way to their soul…to their innermost thoughts and emotions._

_I smirked again and I felt the wind pick up around me. For a moment I thought it was the air conditioning on the fritz, until I remembered that such an assumption was irrational and impossible. The wind managed to pick up the dust in the impeccable room and swirled it around us, catching in my captor's eyes, though magnificently staying away from my own._

_When I next hit him I was surprised to see him double over in pain. The events that happened next blurred in my mind the way memories of traumatic events always tend to. One minute I was pummeling my would-be murderer and the next I was sprinting through the trees of an unfamiliar forest, oftentimes leaping onto tree branches and jumping from one to the other before running once more upon the ground._

_I wished that there had been a map somewhere in the vicinity, seeing as to how I was undeniably lost, unfortunately evil hideouts are never quite as convenient as one may often wish. So I was left without the convenience of a map to guide me out of the forest maze. I came across a lake, or really, I came upon the edge of a lake and tried to think quickly of a way out of the mess I had landed myself in. I heard the man thundering through the trees, well, not really thundering but in my panic everything I heard was magnified, so that was what it sounded like to me. I closed my eyes and focused my mind before taking a step onto the surface of the water._

_When I opened my eyes I was relieved to find that I was safely supported by the water's surface, though it was quite unsettling to watch one's feet standing above the water. I looked back just as the man broke through the veil of trees and I sprinted forward, hoping against all hope that he hadn't managed to find a way to run atop it as well. When I reached the other bank I chanced a look across the water, a stupid thing to do, really. My captor stood, gawking at me, from the other bank of the lake and an emotion that I couldn't explain swelled through my heart. It was like confidence and pride, courage and hope, cockiness and hilarity…all bubbling inside me and threatening to overflow._

_Still running, I pulled a card out of my pocket. It was just one of the strange things I did; it made me feel as if I could speak to my brother. I knew he heard me when I spoke to the cards, and I know he spoke back to me through them. It was the only way I had of communicating my brother, the only thing I had left to remember him by, since the only things he had left me were destroyed in the fire that burnt my house and took my mother from me._

_I looked down at the card in my hand, trying to read it while my hair whipped into my eyes. The Nine of Wands, a minor arcana card. "I have to accept help from other people?" I asked the card aloud. Had anyone been watching, they would have thought me funny in the head for talking to the card and expecting to hear and see things that no one else besides me could. "Aiichirou, are you telling me I have to trust Kanzaki and the others to find me?" Screw that, I thought, I wasn't going to wait until they searched all of Gaea to come looking for me. A rustling in the bushes behind me snapped me out of my angry thoughts._

_Something hopped out of the bushes, at least, I think it was a hop… What looked like a cross between a rabbit and a cat had just come out of the forest surrounding me. I couldn't help but smile…Aiichirou's two favorite animals had come in answer to my questions._

Torienn

Millerna led the way through the busy streets of the beautiful city that shone like a thousand crystals catching the light. Blai watched the people rush across the streets and pathways, sprinting into shops and out, with looks of increasing astonishment. It was as if they had no idea what was happening to the world outside of their crystal city. It was as if nothing was happening, as if nothing could break the barrier that protected the little bubble they were living in. Blai wanted to scream at them, to force them to realize the things that were happening, after all, his beloved Fanelia had been destroyed by something unknown and there wasn't even an EscaFlowne to aid them this time. "Dryden!" Millerna's voice broke the young prince's thoughts and he looked to see whom the woman was speaking to. He caught sight of a tall man dressed in rich clothing, but wearing sunglasses. It was an interesting look that, on anyone else, would have been entertaining. But for some reason, it seemed to suit him. Blai had only seen Dryden a few times in his entire life, he was usually able to see Millerna more because of the fact that his father was friends with the queen of their neighbor and the fact that Dryden was always out being the merchant that he was at heart.

"What took you so long?" he said in his relaxed, even lazy, drawl as he winked at Hitomi from behind his sunglasses. Dryden caught sight of Blai and smiled, "I haven't seen you since you were this tall," he said putting his hand however high above the ground. "How are you?" He was talking to Blai as if the young prince was still 'this tall,' something which many adults tended to do. For a brief moment he wished he was more like Star, whom the adults would never treat like a little kid.

Blai flicked his wrists as if tossing aside unimportant information, "Nothing, really," just the destruction of my entire hometown. But no, that's definitely not something that would ruin any boy's childhood.

"Uncle Dryden," Chid spoke up. He sensed the anger welling up inside his friend at being once again addressed like a little child, "we need your help with something." Dryden ruffled his nephew's hair and gave them a grin that clearly said, 'Go ahead, I can do it.' "Do you remember that legend about the angel and the devil?"

"Let's go inside the castle first," he said with the air of someone cradling a great surprise in his arms.

Van looked suspiciously at the castle looming behind Dryden in the distance, "Are you sure they'll welcome us?" he asked suspiciously. Blai chanced a look at the scraggly group and understood completely what his father meant by the question.

"They welcomed me, didn't they?" Dryden said casually, his arm around Millerna's shoulders. "Don't worry Fanelia. They traded a lot with Asturia before it was destroyed; I think they trust me enough by now to let a few acquaintances of mine stay as well."

Van merely shrugged and Blai thought that his father was right to not feel quite so confident in the matter. But neither Fanelian said a word of protest as they were led to the castle and ushered inside. "May we borrow the library?" Dryden asked. Blai looked around, wondering why in the world he'd ask any of them such a strange question, but he caught sight of the man speaking with another who was dressed in much less glamorous clothing.

The other man nodded and Dryden nodded to the others. Once again, they followed him. He led them through a great maze of grandiose hallways and opened a beautifully carved wooden door at the end of one of them. He held the door open until every last person in their party had made it inside. Hitomi looked over at Van and had the distinct impression that he was completely on his guard, ready to hop up from his seat at any moment. She smiled a little, a lot of time may have passed but some things would never change.

"The legend of the devil and the angel?" Dryden asked his wife for confirmation. Millerna nodded and he went on, "I think it was in one of the Forbidden languages. Not even the Draconians use it anymore," he glanced furtively at Blai and Van, the resident Draconians, before continuing, "it's been such a long time since I've read it, I don't know if I remember everything. I think the Draconians had the legend, too, but it was a little different when I went to research they're version of it.

"If I remember correctly, which I probably do, there are supposed to be three souls inside of the one body with the purest heart; the angel, the devil, and the sacrifice, or the person within whom they all reside. The sacrifice supposedly has the purest heart of both Gaea and the Mystic Moon," Blai suppressed a snort with much difficulty, "but he, or she, will have undergone some sort of terrible ordeal. The angel will awaken at the touch of a devil and visa versa. I'm still not exactly sure what that bit means…

"If the angel should take over, Atlantis would rise and fall again," once again he chanced a furtive glance in Blai's and Van's direction, "but if the devil should awaken and fail to fall asleep both worlds would be destroyed. But if the sacrifice should take control, the bridge between the Mystic Moon and Gaea will be weakened. Either way, we end up with a pretty bad deal…"

"A pure heart?" the young prince was finally able to voice his opinions of the girl without being rude. "Her? That's a laugh."

The others ignored him to a certain extent, "An ordeal?" Van asked, "I don't think your cousin is this 'sacrifice,' Hitomi."

Hitomi, however, completely ignored both him and his son and appeared to be lost in thought. "Is there anything about a scar?" she asked and Blai's ears perked up. Yes, he remembered seeing a strange image branded into the soft skin of her wrist.

Dryden, too, looked thoughtful before saying, "As a matter a fact, there _was_ something that sounded kind of like it, now that I think about it. Something about the 'like a wound that will never heal the mark of the sacrifice will always be upon the survivor,' but I really don't see the relevance…"

Hitomi caught him off with a sharp intake of breath, "It _is_ Star!" she exclaimed. "It has to be."

"What do you mean, Hitomi?" Merle asked curiously, having managed, to Blai's confusion, to remain silent throughout the conversation.

The girl from the Mystic Moon looked at them all as if noticing their existence there for the first time, "When Star was a little girl I think she went through something terrible. She never told me what happened, but once a year, and at random intervals, this mark would appear on her wrist. I got a letter the day I found her…I always thought it was someone from Gaea, now I know, it has to have been. But the scar isn't always there…" her voice trailed off, she had realized how stupid that sounded.

"I saw it, too," Blai said forlornly. The others stared at him and he admitted to having spied on the girl in Fanelia that day which seemed so long ago.

Once again, Hitomi looked thoughtful, it wasn't a look that suited her, Blai thought. "Come to think of it," she said slowly, "she's goes to the graveyard across town once a year. She's been doing it every year since I found her. I guess that's what she's been doing…there _is_ a lake there…" she added as a side note. "I think she's really hurting," she jumped up from her chair which clattered loudly onto the floor. "It has to be her, there has to be a reason for everything that happened, there has to be a reason she was brought with me to Gaea!"


	7. A Falling Star

**Fortune 7-A Falling Star**

Star patted the creature gently on the head before taking off at a run. "I can't believe you expect me to sit around and wait!" she called over her shoulder at the creature that had run after her. "If they find me, they find me," she said, more to reassure herself than anything else, "the least I can do to help is get further from this place…"

The girl turned her head to face forward and immediately skidded to a halt. When the dust settled she had fallen to the ground and was looking up at a tall dark figure, who only managed to look even taller from this angle. Star tried to look at the person's face but, as if sensing her gaze, he, or she, pulled the hood of a black cloak further over the figure's face.

"So, Sayako," Star's heart skipped a beat and she started to shake wildly at the sound of her name. How, how did this person know what she had hidden from the rest of the world for so long? "I see you've finally learned to take care of yourself," the figure said coolly.

"Who the hell are you?" the girl jumped up and her hand went immediately to her side before she realized that she no longer had her sword. She slapped herself mentally for her own stupidity, now how was she going to defend herself? "How do you know my real name?" She hoped that her nervousness hadn't found its way into her voice.

The figure laughed, a sound that sent chills up the girl's spine, "No need to fight me. In fact, you should be thanking me…after all, I'm the one who brought you to Gaea. Don't worry," apparently the person beneath the cloak had sensed Star's muscles tense up, "I won't hurt you." How horribly clichéd was that? "I _can't_ not with that _thing_ awake inside of you?" What thing? Had it been that woman who had called herself an angel, the one who took over her body and forced her inside the empty room that was her own consciousness?

"What business do you have with me?" she was quickly regaining her snappy, sarcastic tone of voice. She realized too late that the words sounded overly confident, even for her.

The figure pulled the hood of its cloak further down its face, as if worried that it was slipping and revealing what was hidden. "I am merely here to tell you that though you think your body is your own, the devil will awaken within you and she will soon stand by my side," the figure turned and started walking away, dissolving into the air. Just before it had completely disappeared the person called jovially, "See you later, Sayako!" That voice, why did it sound so familiar?

"Who are you?" Star yelled and tore off after the figure, but it was gone. "How do you know me?" she whispered quietly to herself. The teenager jumped as something brushed her leg and she looked down to watch the creature, the sign from her brother, purring and looking up at her with large doleful eyes.

* * *

"Dryden," Van said in tones of someone painfully swallowing his pride, "would you help us look for Hitomi's cousin?"

Hitomi looked pleadingly at the man's eyes through his sunglasses, "She came here with me from the Mystic Moon. We don't really know why, and now she's been kidnapped," she wrung her hands nervously. How unlike her, but she couldn't help it, she felt a sense of responsibility since she had first met Star. She felt obligated to care for the younger girl.

Dryden looked about to say something but Chid cut him off, "Sir Allen is back in Fanelia," he said, which was apparently the correct response to the question Dryden was about to pose.

The man took off his sunglasses and held them close to his face as if he was examining them for dust, "Sure, I'm rather interested in this girl." There was a slight smile on his face but it had faded so fast that the others were sure they had imagined it. "Has Hitomi tried dowsing?"

The woman nodded solemnly and when she answered it was to the ground just beneath her shoes, "I couldn't find her anywhere. I don't think she's on Gaea,"

"Damn it!" Everyone jumped and turned to Blai, who had slammed his fist into the wall. No one, not even Van, Merle and Chid, had ever heard that kind of language from him before. "It's all my fault," he said angrily, his head toward the ground and his bangs covering his eyes, for which he was grateful because they were threatening to overflow with infuriated tears.

He had barely noticed when Hitomi came up beside him that he jumped when he felt her hand on his shoulder. Blai quickly blinked the tears out of his eyes and looked up at her, "It isn't your fault, don't blame yourself," she said kindly. "Star can take care of herself until we find her." Though that was what her words said her eyes were filled with worry.

The young prince looked slightly surprised, "I thought you would be mad. I mean, you have every right to be, I let them kidnap your cousin...She _is_ your cousin, isn't she?"

Hitomi laughed with such heart that Blai smiled as well. Anyone who could laugh like that surely wasn't angry. "Sometimes I wish she wasn't," Hitomi said through her laughter. "She can act tough and brave, but she's often pretty cold. Even though that's the face she puts on, I can tell she's the one that's really hurting…"

Her voice trailed off and Van cleared his throat, keen to break the unpleasant mood that had fallen upon them. "We don't have all the time in the world," he said, "does anyone need to bring anything, or can we get started on our way?"

"Hold on," Dryden said and they all turned to look at him, "I have a few bags here I need to take along. And we _do_ need food and water, right? Hopefully we have some means of travel?"

"None whatsoever," Van replied with a smile. "We've been fine so far," he continued, "I don't see the problem with just a little bit more."

"Don't worry," the older man said to Hitomi, having caught sight of the evident worry on her face. "We'll find your cousin." He kissed her hand politely and led the way out of the crystal city.

Hitomi looked at the sky, the sun had already dropped below the horizon and both the Earth and the moon hung, glowing eerily, in the sky. Her eyes followed the path of a falling star and her hands clasped around the jewel hanging from her neck as if desperately seeking the warmth from its gentle glow. _Please let Star be alright_, she prayed as she watched the falling star shimmer and disappear into the depths of the night sky.


	8. Wanderer

**Fortune 8-Wanderer**

Star stared at the spot the figure had stood, "Who are you?" she asked again, though she did not expect an answer. The girl absently stroked her hands through the rabbit creature's thick fur. "How can you possibly know my name?" And after she had worked so hard to keep it concealed, to forget it herself…

The teenager collapsed to the ground. For a moment nothing happened as she sat in a both terrified and stunned silence, unable to move. Something warm rubbed against her leg and broke Star's trance. She looked down and wrapped her arms around the creature that had led her thus far. "Thank you, Aiichirou," she buried her head in the creature's soft, thick fur and her voice cracked a bit as she spoke. She had tried to recreate her identity, and now that was all shattered thanks to that mysterious figure who seemed so familiar, yet unidentifiable.

"Aniki," she unburied her face from beneath the creature's soft fur and turned her head toward the sky, "please, let me find them. I can't let them disappear like everyone else," the young woman squeezed the creature so tightly in her arms that it gave a pained 'mew.' A slight smile formed on her lips and she stood up, still cradling the animal in her arms. "Are you ready, Aiichirou?" she directed the question at the creature as it jumped onto the ground and ran forward.

Star stood in place for a moment before following the creature, "I'll trust you, Aiichirou," she said honestly.

* * *

Hitomi looked determinedly forward, she felt everyone's gaze bore into her. "Is something wrong, Lady Hitomi?" Her heart jumped, she had not expected him to call her 'Lady' Hitomi, it was something she hadn't heard for such a long time. But that one word jarred a memory that had engraved itself upon her mind, a letter from a long time ago…

"No, nothing," the woman shook her head slightly and smiled. "I was just thinking about something my grandmother once told me when I was a little girl…" her voice trailed off and she shook her head again, more vigorously than before, as if trying to shake a horrible thought out of her head. Blai knew the expression on her face well, for it was one he had used often enough. "Let's go," she said after a long moment, "I know Star can take care of herself, but I still worry…"

Van gave Hitomi a look that his son would not recognize, but the others certainly would. It was a look he had given her a long time ago; same Hitomi, always worrying about someone. "Why don't you try the cards?" the king asked quietly.

Instantly, the emerald-eyed woman started digging through the bag that she had previously decided to strap to her back, just in case. She suddenly stopped and looked at them all once more, her eyes filled with even more despair than before, "Star has them. She always holds my cards for me."

"We'll just have to look the old-fashioned way," Dryden said, pushing his sunglasses up on the bridge of his nose even though they weren't slipping. It was a horrible habit of his that Millerna was always trying to get him out of, needless to say her attempts had failed.

Hitomi glanced once more at the dark sky before they pushed forward and a star fell across the sky. A feeling of dread settled itself into the pit of the woman's stomach, but she tried to ignore it, she refused to let the others know. Hitomi _had_ changed, "Too bad we don't have the EscaFlowne, or a leviship," she sighed. The pendant around the woman's neck began to glow, but it was so faint that it went unnoticed.

* * *

Star stopped short and stared for a moment at the stream that blocked her path. After a moment she took a few steps back and jumped over the running water; even though it was shallow enough to wade across to the other side, she wasn't in much of a mood to get wet. The girl looked back and saw the rabbit-cat hybrid huddled on the edge of the stream. It was so close to the water that it was practically touching it, but clearly the animal was unwilling to cross. "I should've known," the girl barely managed to stop herself from giggling, "you never liked the water much, did you, Aniki?" She hopped back across and stopped up the creature in her arms before hopping back across to the other side.

The moment her feet touched the ground, the creature leapt out of her arms and sprinted forward. "Impatient as ever, I see," this time she allowed herself to laugh, a true laugh unlike any she had ever heard coming from her lips since everyone had died.

The creature stopped and looked back at her, its eyes just as impatient as her brother's had been. "I didn't think I could laugh like that anymore," Star marveled aloud. If the animal had been human it would have rolled its eyes. But since it wasn't, the creature merely took off again, Star following closely behind, afraid of losing sight of the tiny animal as it darted around the trees.

* * *

Hitomi stopped and looked down at the pendant that hung around her neck, it was glowing much more brightly than before. "Look at this," she marveled at the pink light the stone was emitting.

The others stopped and gathered closer to take a look, for though it was bright enough for Hitomi to notice it was only because she was the wearer and it was right below her eyes. Dryden moved forward and looked at the necklace for a long time, his hand on his chin. Suddenly he straightened up and pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, they were actually slipping this time. "I think I understand," he said more to himself than to anyone else. "Could you walk back a ways, Hitomi?" he asked coolly.

The woman took a few steps back, as she moved further from the group the necklace's steady glow started to fade. The man nodded, as if all his suspicions had been clarified, and motioned for Hitomi to return. When she had rejoined the others Dryden said, "It's trying to lead us to something."

It wasn't as if the pendant had never done that sort of thing before. "It must be," Millerna said thoughtfully. "But what is it leading us to?"

Van looked around and gave them all one of his confident smiles, "We'll never know if we don't follow it."

An identical smile lit up Blai's face; he looked so much like his father now more than ever. "We'd better get going or whatever it is that necklace is trying to take is to might get too far away."

* * *

The dark-haired young woman sat panting on a fallen log. She couldn't remember having been this tired for a long time. "You might not be tired," she said after she caught her breath, "but I sure as hell am. If I fall asleep something terrible will happen, though," she pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest. Star reached into her pocket and felt around for the feel of the case of her new tarot deck. It would be smooth and glossy, one of her favorite feelings in the world, but instead her fingertips brushed over another familiar feel. It was Hitomi's deck.

"I wonder how that could have gotten there," she wondered for a little while before taking out her own deck of tarot cards. Her guide, the animal that she had been calling by her brother's name, jumped onto her lap and curled up before closing its eyes and giving off a soft snore. Star smiled and flipped over the card that lay on the top of the deck, the Strength. "I'm really trying to be what you expected of me, I really am. But I don't think I can do it…" her voice cracked as she thought of the last words of her loved ones.

Their words echoed and swirled around inside her head as the image of her brother falling flashed in front of her mind. Aiichirou's black hair was flying, the two red streaks in his bangs standing out vividly against his pale face and the wide eyes that Star remembered as being kind and sparkling during life. She remembered that last slow lazy smile before the fall that lasted forever.

Star touched her face and felt a warm tear glide down her cheek. The creature in her lap stirred and looked up at the girl, its eyes kind and sparkling and so full of life; it had Aiichirou's eyes. It nuzzled her and the teenager hugged the creature close, closer than she would ever let any human ever come. "Come on, Aiichirou," she whispered into the creature's ears when she was sure her voice would not crack. "We'd better find the others before anything bad happens to them."

The girl chanced her first look back at the sky since she had sat down to rest; the clouds were glowing with the soft colors of the early dawn. The animal leapt off her lap and stretched before it took off into the trees. Star smiled and wiped the last of her tears from her eyes. She jumped up and chased after the creature, smiling as she felt the warmth of the first rays of the sun peering over the horizon. Everything was going to be alright.


	9. Found

**warning:** I know Star curses a lot, and I know that although she has been cursing it's died down a little bit…at least, until now. I'm sorry, this chapter involves the return of Star's language… T.T

**Fortune 9-Found**

Hitomi and the others stopped for a rest, they had been walking for so long that most of the group had lost track. The woman from the Mystic Moon sat gingerly on a large rock while Millerna and Merle took seats beside her. Van and his son leaned against trees while Chid sat on the ground. Dryden stood in the center of them all and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, yet again. "How long have we been going?" Millerna asked.

Dryden looked up at the sky, "A day, I think," he replied casually, "two at most."

"It feels like it's been much longer," Hitomi said quietly, staring at something on the ground that none of the others could see. She was worried about her cousin; had it really been such a long time since the teenager had been kidnapped? How long would Star be able to survive in a world that she didn't know with no supplies and no company?

The woman held the pendant in her hand and her green eyes reflect with its fading pink glow. "We should get going," she said. The pale luminescence was beginning to dim, and that was beginning to worry her. Blai watched as Hitomi dropped the pendant and let it hang loosely about her neck, he noticed the change even if most of the others didn't seem to.

The young prince pushed himself off from against the tree, "Let's go…now," he added. He was starting to get an idea of what that necklace was taking them to, and every moment they wasted lounging about discussing nothing of importance took them further and further from it.

"Don't be in such a hurry," Van laughed and ruffled his son's hair. Though he liked to be active, to say the least, even the impulsive king of Fanelia could appreciate a bit of relaxation time.

Hitomi stood up and brushed the dirt off her clothes. "Let him hurry if he wants," she said quietly. The others looked at her, clearly confused. The woman stepped forward and pulled her necklace off over her head before handing it to the teenager. "It'll help you find Star," so she, too, had realized the necklace's intentions. "We'll be in the same city we met up with Dryden, meet us there when you find my cousin."

Blai nodded and clasped his hand around the tiny stone before running off and disappearing into the woods. "Something tells me that he'll be able to find her faster than we would," Hitomi said with a grin. Watching him go, the woman felt as if a weight she hadn't even noticed disappeared.

"Why'd you encourage him like that?" Van asked, thoroughly annoyed.

The woman merely smiled at the people she had known so well all those years ago and never thought she would see again. "He's just like you were, Van," she said. The man's son was just as impulsive as he used to be, just as stubborn as he used to be, and just as brave as he used to be. "And besides, he feels guilty about what happened to Star. I could just tell that he felt like what happened was his fault. This is just something that I think he has to do…"

Chid looked up at them all from his place on the grass, "And maybe he needs to apologize for not being able to protect her," he said grimly. His tone caught Hitomi by surprise; it wasn't one that she remembered ever hearing from the little boy she once knew. It was strange to think of how much that innocent child had grown up.

"Nothing we can do now but wait," Dryden pushed his sunglasses up on the bridge of his nose and flashed one of those confident, charismatic smiles that Hitomi knew so well. "The kid can run pretty fast when he wants to," the woman nodded. He would, of course, know better than her, having been there to watch the young boy grow up as she had not.

* * *

The sun hung at its highest point in the clear, cloudless blue sky and Star was getting hungry. She fell onto the ground and lie on her back with her arms spread out at her sides. The little creature peered at her curiously, "Come on, Aiichirou, just a little break," she whined. The animal jumped back and cocked his head to the side. _God, I sound like such a little kid_, she thought angrily. Had she had the energy to move, she would have smacked herself for acting that way.

The animal mewed and ran through the bushes, Star sat up so quickly she could have sworn she got whiplash and looked for a sign of her guide. When it came back through the bush the fur on its paw was matted down with water. "Water!" Star shouted happily and jumped up to run through the bushes where the animal had come.

* * *

Blai stopped and looked down once more at the pendant, its light was fading fast and he still had no idea where he was going or what he was doing. He shook his head wildly, his black hair whipping through the air, "How in the world does Hitomi work this thing?" he asked himself. "Maybe I'm going the wrong way," he said worriedly. What if he was? What if something had happened to Star and this entire time he had been going the wrong way? "If only the EscaFlowne hadn't gone missing, then I'm be able to search the whole forest in a heartbeat," the boy sighed. If the EscaFlowne hadn't gone missing then the girl wouldn't have been dragged into Gaea. If the EscaFlowne hadn't gone missing he wouldn't have been able to pilot it anyway, his father would be, with Hitomi perched on the giant Melef's shoulder and using the glowing pendant to help them find their way.

_It's my fault;_ he thought miserably as he kicked a stone aside with his big toe, _everything's always my fault. Mom…you'd still be here if it wasn't for me…_ The teenager felt a warm, rebellious tear slide down his cheek and dried it off quickly, looking around for anyone who may have been watching out of habit. "Don't think about that!" he commanded himself, "I don't have time to think about that. I have to keep on going!"

Blai looked down at the pendant and started running, the glow around the stone flared and dimmed once more. He ran more quickly and watched as the light around the necklace steadily became stronger and stronger. The boy smiled and wiped the sweat off his brow, "Perfect," he muttered as the pendant's steady glow illuminated his face in the darkness beneath the protective cover of the trees.

The young prince was so eager to find the girl that he wasn't paying much attention to where his feet were leading him, both his gaze and his mind completely focused on the strength of the luminescence surrounding the pendant in his hands. Blai felt his foot twist beneath him as it caught a rock and sent him stumbling over the ledge of a pit that he would have otherwise run straight into. The string around the pendant caught on a jutting stone and the teenager dangled there, trying to look down into the darkness below him for a bottom to this hole.

After Hitomi had left and Fanelia had had the difficult task of rebuilding, Merle had discovered a useful kind of rope. It was very strong and difficult to break, and luckily the string that held the pendant was made of that same rope, otherwise Blai knew he wouldn't have had a chance.

"Great, now how do I get out of this one?" he muttered as he tried to place gain his footing against the uneven wall and found that he had injured his ankle. Just his luck…

* * *

"This feels great!" Star exclaimed when her head had burst through the surface of the cool, clear water. She had shed her clothes and was swimming; it was strange how simple things like swimming or reading could make her forget absolutely everything…all her problems, everything going on in the world around her… She floated on her back for a while before calling out for the cat-rabbit hybrid, "Aiichirou?" she flipped over and stood up, water dripping from the ends of her hair onto her back and into her eyes. The creature sat on its haunches just at the edge of the lake. It was so close, yet the fear it held in its eyes clearly said that it wasn't about to go any closer.

She dove under and swam to the edge of the lake where the creature sat next to her clothes. "You should have learned to swim, Aniki," she said, "you don't know what you're missing." The teenager splashed the creature causing a wave of water to crash upon the shore. It shook the water out of its fur while Star scrambled out of the water to hug it tightly before she set it down again and lay on the ground to dry off in the warm sun.

The girl closed her eyes and spread her arms out at her side, the little animal curled up on her naked stomach. It was so comfortable, so peaceful. She wished things could just stay that way…that time would just stop then and there. A sharp pain ran through her head and the girl sat up to rub her temples, causing the rabbit-cat creature to fall clumsily beside her, its head smacking against the ground. Star stood up and quickly shoved her clothes back on, she wasn't completely dry but it was good enough. And besides, the dark-haired teenager had a strange feeling, as if something was pulling at her and she had to follow.

Star trudged through the bushes and on the other side a gaping pit scarred the ground. Sunlight reflected against something and shone into her eyes and a strange soft, pink glow radiated from that same source. A dark string was wrapped around a jutting stone and everything connected itself together inside her mind. "Kanzaki!" she yelled worriedly and leapt over to the edge of the pit to get a better look inside its wide mouth. She recognized that necklace, not only from her dreams but also from her cousin's thoughts and memories; it was the necklace that had originally brought Hitomi to Gaea and it was the necklace that had brought her back again.

When the girl peered over the ledge she saw not her cousin but a young familiar boy with hair as dark as her own. "What are you doing, kid?" she asked sarcastically, she could see very clearly what he was doing; dangling off the end of a necklace and hanging on for dear life. "Where's Kanzaki and why in the seven hells do you have her necklace?"

Blai didn't even look up to see who it was that was speaking to him. Though he had a pretty good idea already, anyone would have been nice, really, as long as that person was willing to get him out of the position he was so unfortunately stuck in. "Less talking, more saving," he said and immediately regretted it. The boy knew how pathetic that had sounded and tried again, "I'll explain everything later," yeah, right, "but would you mind lending me a hand first?" he asked this time.

Star stared at him uncertainly, "I've never done this kind of thing before," she said. The teenager closed her eyes and focused all of her energy on the picture of the boy's dangling form that was materializing in her mind.

"I should hope not," the boy said angrily, or what would have been angrily had his hand not started slipping. "I have a feeling this doesn't happen very often where you come from…" Wow, sarcasm, how unlike him. The situation must really have brought out the cynic hiding inside of him.

The girl would have glared at him had her eyes not still been closed. Normally, she would have gone and pulled him up, but the fact that she could not easily cross to the other side of the gaping hole would have made doing that much more of a hassle than she wanted to get involved in. "Shut the hell up!" she yelled, her mind was already beginning to wander and the idiot's whining wasn't helping.

In her mind's eye, Star visualized the boy floating above the yawning crevice and landing gently on the ground beside her. She was close…The teenager's eyes snapped open to the sound of a loud thump next to her. Blai was lying in an uncomfortable position on the ground and covered in dirt. "Couldn't have been a little gentler?" Once again, that uncharacteristic sarcasm, it just wasn't his day.

The boy stood up and dusted himself off in vain; some of those stains were pretty stubborn. "I just told you," Star said angrily, bending down to scoop the rabbit-cat creature into her arms, "that was my first fucking time trying to do that." She spun around on her heels and headed back for the lake, "I should have just left you there, would have been a hell of a lot easier to just leave you there." She was already almost in the bushes and out of the boy's sight.

"Oh, this is what I get for finding you? Not even a 'Thank you'?"

Star spun back around and gave him a glare colder than any he had ever seen from her before. "_You_ found _me_?" she roared. The creature in her arms gave an involuntary shudder and Blai took a few steps back, wishing he could just disappear so he wouldn't have to be the focus of that chilling stare. "What kind of moron are you?" Star's hair flew up behind her and started whipping around in a mysterious wind that swirled the dust and foliage at her feet. For a split second, Blai could have sworn he saw the shadow of a dragon behind her as well.

The boy shrugged and said, "Forget it," much more nonchalantly than he felt. "Let's just get back to the others," he watched as the girl's hair fell limp against her neck before unfurling his shining white wings. Before she could say anything, he grabbed Star around the waist and took off, flying as fast as his wings could take him towards where his father and the others had said they would be.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Star shouted, her voice muffled by the sound of the wind.

Blai certainly wasn't in the mood to deal with this right now. "I'm taking you back to the others, what do you think I'm doing?" he yelled back.

The girl squirmed a bit so that Blai was afraid he would lose his grip on her, "I can get there on my own!"

"It's faster this way," the boy yelled back. Even as he said it, his mind wandered to the strange woman, Sani. Maybe it wasn't faster that way, but Star wouldn't know that and so she remained silent the rest of the way back, watching the forest rushing by below her.


	10. Blinded by Life

**Fortune 10-Blinded by Life**

They still weren't exactly at the front gates of the protected, crystal city, but Blai set the girl down on the ground. The wings on the boy's back disappeared in a flurry of feathers that glowed in the light and he gently landed on the ground. "Do you mind if we take a quick rest?" he asked his strangely quiet companion. It wasn't as if Star had much of a choice. Blai was exhausted from first searching for the missing teenager and then flying her back to where he was supposed to be meeting with his father and the others.

Star nodded and scratched the rabbit-cat hybrid behind one if its soft, fuzzy ears. Her lips curved into an absent smile, she didn't even realize she was doing it. "How did you tame that thing?" the young prince asked, forcing Star to snap out of her thoughts. She was about to ask what she would have probably considered one of the stupidest questions she had ever heard in her life, when she noticed that the boy's gaze was on the creature that rested in the crook of her arm.

"Aiichirou? Tame?" the girl laughed, "He's definitely anything but tame…" It was true; this little creature was exactly like her dear brother…absolutely the same, including the same wild personality and fear of water.

Blai looked thoughtful for a moment, "Aiichirou, Aiichirou…" he muttered, stroking his chin in what would have been a comical way had Star felt like laughing. "I swear I've heard the name before."

"My brother," the girl answered before he even had the chance to ask the question, "you probably heard it when you were listening in on me before." She shook her head as if trying to shake out unpleasant thoughts and the animal in her arms looked up at her with worry in its large eyes. "Where are Kanzaki and the others?" It was strange, try as she might to deny it, in the end Star always had to admit that she cared a great deal about her older cousin.

The corners of Blai's lips twitched, he tried to keep a straight face as he asked, "You really care about her, don't you?"

The prince was taken aback by the girl's reaction, she snorted. "Kanzaki…? That idiot? I'm not going to waste my time worrying about a weakling like her."

"But from what my father said—"

Star snorted again, "Your dad doesn't know Kanzaki the way I do. She can't do anything for herself." Once again the girl tried to shake away all unwanted thoughts, but having apparently failed miserably, she regained her cruel, snappish tone and said, "I'm not sitting here all day because you're too damn tired."

The boy started clenched his hands into fists at his sides as he walked in the direction of the crystal city. God, that girl was starting to get on his nerves. They were having a decent conversation, and then she snaps at him for no apparent reason. What was her deal?

* * *

When Blai and Star caught sight of the others, they were just outside of the enchanting city that was to be their meeting place. "How'd you get here so fast?" Merle asked curiously.

The boy shrugged, just being around that girl had completely destroyed all desire in him to have a decent conversation. "Flew," he shrugged.

"We aren't staying _here_ are we?" Star asked with evident disgust.

Blai couldn't stand it anymore. "If you don't want to then sleep in the woods!" he shouted at her. Anyone would have lost their temper after being forced to be with the girl for as long as he had. The teenage prince wondered briefly how Hitomi managed to stand living in the same house as her without wanting to tear out all of her hair.

The girl's eyes flared and she shot a malevolent glare in Blai's direction. Chills ran up and down the boy's spine, but he wasn't about to show it. And without another word, Star stalked into the forest. Hitomi sighed deeply and everyone's focus snapped instantly onto her. "She'll be there for a while; she does the same thing a lot back home." The young woman ran a hand through her short brown hair, "We should probably leave her alone until she decides to come back on her own."

Blai was stunned, he had just done all that to get the stupid girl back, he had gone through all that guilt on her behalf, and Hitomi wanted him to just leave it? Apparently, he and his father were on the same wave-length. "What do you mean, 'leave her alone'?" Van yelled angrily. "We wandered half-way across Gaea, on foot, and you want us to 'leave her alone'? We have a right to know what's going on!"

"And she has a right to keep her silence," Dryden interrupted in his calm, soothing voice. He pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, "I'd love to meet the kid," he said. "From what I've heard it would be an interesting experience. But I'm not risking it right now, not if she's in as bad a mood as Hitomi's making it out to be."

Hitomi looked up at the king with those emerald green eyes that had etched themselves so deeply into his memory. "He's right, Van," she said quietly. She had changed so much, yet she was still the same girl from all those years ago, "I've never known her to say what's on her mind. Sometimes I worry about her, with all those feelings pent up inside of her…"

Blai immediately found something of a great deal of interest on the tip of his shoe and began to study it intensely. What he had seen that day that felt like it had been an eternity ago, in the garden of the home he had lost, must have been a matter of the greatest importance; it was something so secret, so personal, that not even her cousin, the woman that she lived with, knew what was going on. It made the boy feel both dirty and guilty just thinking about it. "I guess I should go apologize," Blai said to that intensely interesting invisible object on his shoe. He, too, walked through the trees, in the same direction Star had gone.

"Star!" he called when he got far enough away from the others that he was sure they wouldn't hear him. "Star!" he called again, but louder. "Where are you?" And that was definitely a question that Star classified as one of the stupidest questions she had ever heard. Blai sat down, he hadn't given up, but he was still exhausted, having yet to recover from his long flight.

"Idiot," Star's voice came from a high up branch of the tree against which the young prince was leaning. "You shouldn't go butting into other people's business."

"We'll, you shouldn't act so spoiled," he said. It sounded pretty stupid coming from the lips of a boy who was until recently the heir to the throne of a prosperous kingdom.

Blai tilted his chin up to get a better look at the girl with whom he was, at that moment, attempting to have a failing conversation with. He saw her slowly close her brilliant blue eyes and chew on a piece of grass. She was sitting with her back leaning against the trunk, one leg swinging below her, and her fingers entwined behind her head to cushion it against the uncomfortable tree.

"I have my reasons," the girl finally said, "if you've come here to apologize, I'm not accepting, so you might as well leave."

The boy stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm not leaving until you accept." Even he had to admit that he was starting to sound like such a child.

The blue-eyed teenager gave a slight shrug, "Suit yourself. But you'd better get comfortable, kid, because you're going to be here for a long time."

Blai silently fumed, or would have silently fumed had his mouth not acted before his head. "What's your deal?" he asked angrily.

Star chose not to answer the question, "See ya in the morning," she said as she spat out the blade of grass and squirmed a bit to get into a better sleeping position.

"Answer me!" More and more was he starting to sound like a child, but more and more was this girl testing what little patience he had.

The other teenager was silent for a moment and then she tilted her head to the canopy of the trees so that the boy wouldn't be able to see the tears streaming silently down her face. "You're my problem, kid," she lied. "Now let me go to sleep." Much as she wanted to, she refused to tell him, or anyone else, what she was really feeling. She was not going to let them think she was weak.

Blai felt as if something had slammed into him. His gaze instantly returned to the invisible blemish on his shoes and thoughts swarmed through his head. They weren't angry thoughts, though. They were sad and hurt; he didn't think that girl's words could hurt him so much. The boy slid onto the ground and curled up against the base of the tree. The creature—she had called it Aiichirou, hadn't she?—walked over to him and curled up against him to fall into a peaceful sleep.

"Aiichirou, you traitor!" Star yelled. Something, a tree branch most likely, hit the boy squarely in the back of the head, but he didn't notice. His eyes were drawn to the little creature's chest as it rose and fell, but he wasn't really watching its movements. Blai was completely lost in his own thoughts which were filled with echoes of the words Star had just said. _"You're my problem, kid."_ For a brief instant, Blai thought, _If I had the EscaFlowne she'd think differently,_ before he fell asleep.

* * *

When Blai awoke he stretched his arms out above his head and wondered briefly why he felt so miserable as a blanket of long grass fluttered off of him. In a flash, he remembered all the events of the past few days and he looked up in search of the other teen. She was no where in sight, "Where'd she go?" he asked himself. The boy stood up and brushed himself off. "I can't go back without her," he said.

"Yes, you can," Star was walking toward him through the trees. "Go back to your family while you've still got one," she said with a trace of something Blai was sure couldn't have been there. Was it something like sadness, or envy? It couldn't be, not coming from that girl.

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for, idiot?" Star snapped as she set what Blai recognized as the animal named after her brother onto the ground. "I tell you to get lost and you say, 'thank you'? You're even more of a moron than I thought."

Blai shrugged, "You covered me with the grass, right? Thanks."

The girl snorted and turned around so that her back was facing him, "The wind," she said shortly. "You'd better get going or the others will be worried about you."

"What about you? They'll be worried about you, too!"

Star shook her head and the boy found himself watching the way her pure black hair fell around the nape of her neck. "No, they won't. I have no one left to care."

Her attitude was starting to get on the boy's nerves. Sure, he wasn't happy with the way he was leading his life, but he didn't make such an annoyingly big deal out of it. "What about Hitomi?" Blai was surprised he had the patience say anything but what was on his mind at the time.

The girl shook her head once more, "I've been such a pain-in-the-ass to her…do you really expect her to welcome me with open arms?" She watched as Aiichirou rubbed against her leg and purred contentedly.

"Yes!" Star looked up, apparently startled by the answer he had given to her. "And I know that you care, too, otherwise you wouldn't have been so worried when you thought it was her in that pit. I'm not leaving without you," he said stubbornly. He looked at the ground, "I'm tired of being a mistake. I'm tired of being a little kid. I'm tired of being weak…"

The girl was even more surprised than she had been with the boy's previous answer. She wondered vaguely what in the world the pampered prince could have meant before a stronger voice inside Star's head told her that it was none of her business and he could keep his secrets if she could keep her own.

"Let's go," the girl said loudly in the awkward silence that had sunk in after Blai's words. "I have a feeling that we have to be there, so let's go," what a load of bull. The girl had no such feeling, but she did indeed finally realize that it would be to both her and the boy's benefit if they returned to the others.

But just as she was about to walk back in the direction of the beautiful, fragile city, a vision flashed before her eyes.

* * *

A large, elegant white Melef unlike any she had ever seen before in her time on Gaea stood in the middle of a dark field. It must have just rained, because the machine was covered in blood. Star cupped her hands and gathered some of the liquid in her palms; it wasn't rain water, it was blood.

Another Melef ran towards the one in the center of the girl's range of vision. She wanted to yell out to the pilot, but no words came out, not that he would have needed it. The girl watched as the white machine destroyed Melef after Melef, swinging its sword gracefully as if it was an extension of the machine rather than an extra, awkward limb. Due to Star's love of swords, she could appreciate the beauty in the machine's style.

Just as she was admiring the machine's movements, it turned its empty face to stare at her. Behind the Melef's eyes, Star could see a pair of very familiar ones. It took her a moment to place them. "Blai!" she shouted when she realized to whom those usually fierce, but now empty, eyes belonged. "Blai, wake up!" The girl tried to move, to run forward, not that she had any idea of what she would do when she got there, but her limbs refused to follow the commands her brain was sending.

Star looked at the ground, it felt as if something was pulling at her, forcing her to stay in that spot…trying to pull her deeper into the bloodstained ground. Hands. Uncountable hands reached out and groped around, trying to get a hold onto her leg to pull her down with them, to wherever the bodies they were attached to lay. The hands circled around the girl's throat.

She gave one last scream before…

* * *

Hitomi stopped dead, her vision blurred and in the very far off distance she could see the EscaFlowne. But it was so hard to see, like she was looking at a wet photograph from three feet away. "Something's wrong!" she jumped up from her place at the lovely wooden table and ran out the door, the others following in her footsteps. Even though all those years had gone by, she still prided herself in her running and even coached the track team.

She ran through the trees, the foliage crunching beneath her feet, until she crashed into someone. "Blai?" she asked. "Where's Star?"

The boy shook his head, his face was pale and he looked, as the saying went, as if he had seen a ghost. "Something weird happened while we were just heading back. I was about to go get Millerna…"

"Is she okay?"

"Out of no where, she just went all rigid and screamed and then she just collapsed…"

"Oh, no…You go get Millerna, I'll go find Star." Hitomi ran through the woods and caught sight of three sets of footprints. One going in the way from which she had just come, most likely Blai's, one set going in the opposite direction and, one that didn't look entirely human. "Star!" the woman yelled out once more.

Something rustled in the tree above the woman from the Mystic Moon. "What do you want?" her cousin hung upside down, with her knees hooked onto a branch, from the nearest tree. Before Hitomi could say anything, the teenager's eyes became distant and she watched something that was so far away that the older woman could not see it. "The dragon," Star said, "it's alone. It wants the taste of blood again, so I have to go find it alone." The girl flipped and jumped easily onto the ground, "If anyone else gets near it, it'll eat them."

Hitomi was startled, "You know where the EscaFlowne is?" She recognized the term for the mysterious Guymelef from long ago.

Star nodded, "I had a vision," she said. "I have to find it before anyone else does, otherwise…" her voice trailed off and she gave an involuntary shudder. The girl shook her head as if hoping that the thoughts in her mind would fall out.

"What would happen?" Hitomi asked, stalling for time. Though she placed much faith in her own track skills, the girl knew that if her cousin decided to bolt, she would never be able to catch up. Hopefully, the others would get there before such a situation was to happen.

"They were suffocating me…I couldn't do anything," Star said quietly to that distant object that only she could see. She regained her usual tone of voice and said to her cousin, though she was still looking far away, "If I don't go everyone is going to die. I won't let that happen. Not again."

"No one's dying."

"Yes they are!" Star yelled, her eyes snapping back to focus angrily on her cousin. "You're too blinded by life to see it!" Blai had found the others and the entire group ducked beneath the brush when they heard the angry hiss in the younger girl's voice. "Stop caring about me. Stop caring about whether I die or not!"


	11. Seperate Ways

**Fortune 11-Separate Ways**

"I'm sorry," Hitomi's voice was apologetic although her eyes stared defiantly at her younger cousin, "but I just can't do that." Asking her to forget was the same as asking her to stop caring and that was certainly not something she could do.

Star didn't say anything and after a moment she turned around and shrugged, saying, "Whatever, I'm leaving."

The brown-haired woman rubbed her eyes, dealing with the girl was starting to give her a headache. "Alright," she said reluctantly, and tiredly, "I'll tell the others," she was in no mood to argue with her cousin.

Back still turned toward Hitomi, the teenager pointed over her shoulder at the bush behind which Blai and the others had taken refuge. "Don't bother," she said, "they already heard." The girl couldn't quite explain it, but although she had known long ago that they were already there, she couldn't bring herself to make them leave. Maybe she was just caught up in the moment…Star tossed the thought around inside her mind with ill humor. If that was the case she would need to watch her emotions much more closely, she couldn't allow too many outbursts like that one.

Blai jumped up from where he had been so-called 'hiding.' "I'll go with you," he said much too loudly than was necessary. "Even if you find the EscaFlowne, you wouldn't be able to pilot it; it'll only accept someone from my family…"

Once again, Star gave an unconcerned shrug, "Suit yourself," she said in a bored voice before walking off in the opposite direction of the fragile crystal city. Blai ran after her and both teenagers disappeared in the midst of the forest.

Hitomi looked back at the others, her long-time companions, and gave a deep, almost relieved, sigh. "We'd better get going, too, then," she said to them all, though her gaze was directed at Van who was staring determinedly at the ground. Rare an occasion though it was, he was ashamed of what he had just witnessed and at a complete loss for words.

"We shouldn't be ashamed," Chid said with the same guilty determination in Van's eyes. "But why does it feel as if we have been caught intruding on someone's most private secrets?" It couldn't possibly be because that was exactly what had happened…

Once again, the woman from the Mystic Moon sighed and rubbed at her eyes. She certainly was not in the mood to say anything, so Dryden did for her. "Maybe…" he began with less than his usual calm, "maybe she really is the maiden of legend." The others stared at him; Hitomi even took her palms away from her green eyes to focus them on the man. "Well," he said, sounding as if a technical lecture was about to take place, "she's been through something awful," what an understatement. "Maybe we should try to find the EscaFlowne before those two kids do," he added thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Hitomi said, dropping her hands to her sides, "Van and I will go, since Van and Blai are the only ones who would have even a chance of piloting it." Unfortunately, the woman didn't have the slightest idea as to where to look, after all, she had lent the pendant to the king's son. The dark-haired man finally looked up and gave a curt nod before dragging the woman into the trees.

The group watched as the two also disappeared amongst the thick trees. "Ironic, don't you think?" Dryden asked casually, pushing his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. His wife, nephew, and Merle gave him identical curious glances, "Hitomi and Star are related, as are Van and Blai." They still had no idea what the man was rambling on about. "Hitomi and Star are both from the Mystic Moon," Chid found himself wishing that his uncle would stop placing them together, calling them 'Hitomi and Star' as if they were the same being. "They also both have powers that we could never even begin to fathom. History is repeating itself."

"I think I get it," Chid said with a slight grin playing on his lips and an understanding nod. He wondered briefly that, if Blai was to be playing the part of Van and Star was Hitomi, who would be acting as Allen in the mixed up play that had turned their lives upside down.


	12. Torn Heart

**Fortune 12-Torn Heart**

It had already been a week—a full week!—and Blai was strangely contented with the arrangements. It was unnerving that he could find his time with the girl enjoyable, just the thought of it sent shivers running across the boy's spine. Though, he did feel strangely like a dog…Wherever his companion pointed, he would go, though that was because she was the only one of the two of them that had even the slightest idea as to where the EscaFlowne might have been. While the boy did almost anything Star could ask of him, and more, he was surprised to find her listening to his ideas and suggestions. Before then, the prince had thought her too proud and arrogant to even think about doing such a thing.

But one day that easy contentment changed. The two teenagers were sitting beside a beautiful lake that glowed in the afternoon sun: Blai was fishing, attempting to catch their lunch for the day, and Star was lying on her side, her back facing her companion and her hands running absently through Aiichirou's fur. "Did your father ever tell you how they got to Atlantis last time," she asked. "I mean, when Kanzaki was here before." It wasn't like the girl's cousin had told her anything, but she still knew about it anyway. As she so often said, the older girl thought very loudly.

"No," Blai answered, bewildered, what had brought this on? "I didn't even know they'd gone," it took him a moment to understand what else he was feeling besides confusion: sadness, feeling left out, paranoia. Why _hadn't_ any of the others ever bothered to tell him? Did they not trust him enough, or did they think he wasn't mature enough, or was there some other reason that Blai couldn't even begin to fathom? While he was trying to decipher his thoughts, he saw the fishing pole at his side move and almost leap into the water out of the corner of his eye. The boy lunged for it and started to pull. He turned around to grin at his companion; they'd have a good meal for the first time in a while, but was walking away until she had disappeared through the veil of trees.

The young prince shrugged, he was used to that sort of thing happening a lot now that he was stuck with the girl full-time. At first he would have become angry or worried, but he knew by now that she could take care of herself. No, what worried Blai was how easy things had been so far. Things like this were always supposed to be harder, and he knew that they had to watch closely for when something, anything, happened. But, of course, Star knew that already.

Blai tugged harder and a fish flew out of the water, attached to the string he had tied to the stick earlier in the day. With a smile, the boy started a fire and cooked said fish; that made it one for him, he had caught it earlier on, and one for Star, the one he had just caught. Finally, something other than whatever berries and herbs they could find. He looked up at the sky and was surprised at how late it was, the sun was already beginning its descent beneath the horizon and darkness was quickly rolling in. "Where can she be?" Blai wondered aloud. He gave a shrug, if she wasn't back by the time the fish was cooked, he would go looking for her. The girl needed her space once in a while, and he didn't want her angry with him for the next couple of days because he wouldn't give it to her.

* * *

Star turned around and started walking back to where she had left her companion. It was getting late and she hadn't realized how long she had been wandering through the trees. It was calming, soothing, and it gave her time to think, but if she didn't hurry back the boy would start to worry about her. She hated to admit it, but over the past week she had begun to grow quite fond of Blai. Possibly even love? No, that couldn't be. She'd never felt love before, but she had vowed on the graves of those that she loved that she would never allow herself to fall in love, never allow her to get close enough to someone to have her heart broken again when they are taken away. But then…what was this feeling? When she was with him it was harder for Star to keep her mask. She felt that losing him would be even worse than losing Kanzaki and those thoughts and feelings were why she needed to get away. Maybe she had gone on too much of a walk, Star was thinking much more than she wanted to.

Suddenly, while she was walking, the girl had the urge to sing. The words flowed from her like a steady stream and now that the dam had been taken away it would not stop until it ran out. It was a sad song, a nonsense song, a song that held her entire heart and soul. Star wasn't proud of her singing voice, but people said that it was so full of heart that it was beautiful.

"You have a lovely voice," said a familiar voice from behind the protection of the trees. "It's too bad it's such a sad song." Star knew she heard that voice from somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Who are you?"

Chid stepped into her range of vision, "I'm hurt that you've forgotten me already," Star noticed that he looked flushed. He had obviously run a great distance since she and Blai had clearly had a very good head start.

Star turned her back to him and started walking towards where she had left Blai; he would start looking for her soon. "What do you want, Freid?" she asked as she spun around on her heels to start her return.

The blond boy caught her wrist and Star winced, it was the one with the scar and she hoped to the God that she didn't believe in that he wouldn't find out about it, even though her hands were gloved. "I wanted to see you again," he said, pulling her into a strong, gentle embrace. "I just can't keep you out of my mind," he whispered softly into her ear.

"Let go of me," she said weakly. Had she been expecting this she would have thought of some way out of the situation, but as things turned out, this was one of the last things she had ever been expecting. Along with Blai wearing a frilly dress and doing the can-can. Then again…it was _one_ of the last things she was expecting.

"I can't," the boy was still whispering, "I wanted to see you one more time" (Now, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that Chid is...about fifteen years older than Star. I really don't think that's legal…). He closed his eyes, "I just _had_ to follow you. When you left you took my heart with you; that was when I knew I was in love with you."

"Took you an awfully long time to catch up," Star said sarcastically. She couldn't move, she willed her body to break away but it would not, having longed for a loving touch for so long. Even if she couldn't control her body anymore, she still had control over her sharp words.

The boy chuckled with his enchanting blue eyes still closed as he leaned closer to the girl and buried his face in her soft, dark hair. "Please, don't leave me again. I can't stand to watch you walk away from me again."

* * *

"Where the hell _is_ that girl?" Blai wondered aloud as he stood up, he was both anxious and angry. What an interesting combination, at least when caused by someone like Star. It was already dark and, impatient as ever, he had eaten his fish while his companion's went cold. He watched the light from the crackling fire flicker as Aiichirou slept, curled up peacefully like a soft white cloud. "I'm going to find her," the creature's ears perked up and it looked up at him. Apparently, it had not been asleep. Blai would have smiled, but he was too worried about the strange girl, and he ran into the woods. "Star!" he called. Where could she be? A beautiful sound suddenly filled his ears and he stopped immediately. Someone was singing. A lovely song, a sad song…a beautiful voice, so full of emotion…that voice…Star! He willed his legs to move again and followed the sound until she had finished her song.

"You have a lovely voice," who was that? Blai knew he heard the voice before; it was so familiar, like a childhood friend, so why couldn't he seem to remember? "It's too bad it's such a sad song." The boy understood where he had heard that voice before. Chid!

"Who are you?" Blai peeked through an opening in the bushes that he was now crouched behind; he seemed to have been doing a lot of hiding behind bushes since he had met the strange girl from the Mystic Moon.

Chid stepped into view from behind a tree, his face flushed from running. He must have been pretty desperate to catch up. "I'm hurt that you've forgotten me already," he said. The young prince tried in vain to comprehend what was going on, at least, that was what he was doing until he saw his friend pull the girl into a tight embrace.

Why did it hurt so much? He felt as if his heart was being torn out of his chest and stepped on until not even a single atom was left. Why? He didn't have feelings for Star, not that way at least. He knew he didn't. He just couldn't be in love with her, not with someone like her. Cocky, arrogant, aloof, but also kind, caring, wounded, vulnerable…something that Blai had to take care of, to protect, to preserve. Was that love?

* * *

"Let go of me, Freid," Star said, more firmly this time, as she broke out of his embrace but not out of his grasp. Chid's hand was still clasped around her wrist. "You'll just get hurt. Never share your heart with anyone…I learned that the hard way," and how she had.

The boy's—man's?—eyes met hers and refused to let go of her blue gaze, "Don't say that. Please, don't say that. You don't know how much that hurts…"

"Really?" the girl glared at him coldly, "I think I do." She turned away again and tried to break out of his grip but the man pulled her closer and his lips met hers in a kiss. Star's first kiss, this was definitely not the sort of situation she would have expected to receive it in. Then again, every girl romanticizes the idea of the ever-important first kiss.

* * *

Blai's eyes grew wide; his entire soul had just been torn out and shattered into a thousand pieces. The pain of watching Star in someone else's arms had been enough to break his heart before, but now he felt he would die…watching as someone he had long considered his best friend steal a kiss.

Dejected and unwilling to watch anymore and put himself through more pain, Blai turned around and ran back to where he and Star had set up camp. "Am I in love?" he asked himself as he got further and further away from the scene that he wished would erase itself from his memory.

* * *

Star broke away and pushed the man so hard that he fell to the ground. She would have smiled had the circumstances been different, it was almost comical to see the usually so dignified and composed man lying on his back on the ground. The girl wiped her mouth on her sleeve to show her disgust over what had just happened. "Never do that again, you bastard," she spat. The jerk didn't even look ashamed! "I don't love you, get that through your thick skull and go back."

Chid stood up and brushed himself off, "I'm not going back," he said simply. "I'm not going back until you fall in love with me." Such confidence! Star wanted to strangle him.

"You'll be here for a helluva long time, then," the girl spun around on her heels and walked back towards her and Blai's make-shift camp, completely aware of the fact that Chid was following close behind. When she broke through the trees and saw Blai sitting next to a sleeping Aiichirou and poking the fire with a very long stick she gave a little smile. Her brother was quite fond of the boy. "Don't tell me you ate my dinner," Star cried with noticeably false anger. Blai didn't say anything, he just pointed to a leaf on which lay a cooked fish, now cold. That was strange; he would usually continue joking with her, since her joking in itself was a rare occasion.

That was when Chid stepped out from behind the trees. Blai stared at his longtime friend for a moment before getting up and walking toward the edge of the lake, the spot where he lay down to sleep. Star shrugged her thoughts aside. Whatever Blai's problem was he had to deal with it on his own otherwise he would never be able to get over it. So, there was no point in wondering what it was.

The girl curled up next to her brother by the fire and watched it flicker before closing her eyes and trying to fall asleep, appearing to completely ignore Chid's entire existence.

She had a hard time falling asleep, with the fire's warmth washing over her face. Too many thoughts were swirling around inside her head. _You can't fall in love, Star_, she reminded herself over and over, though she wasn't entirely sure which of the two boys she was referring to. _If you fall in love they'll all leave you, just like last time. You'll be Sayako again. Sayako who cried in her sleep and was plagued by nightmares…Sayako who killed everyone that mattered… You have to hate them otherwise they'll leave you alone again. _As the last thought faded from her mind, she fell asleep to the comforting crackling of the fire and the protective warmth of both it and her brother.


	13. Inner Demon

**Fortune 13-Inner Demon**

Star awoke before Blai, as usual. The fire had died and she looked for a stick nearby so that she wouldn't have to get up from her conveniently comfortable position next to where its flames had once been. She found one easily and immediately commenced prodding the charred logs in hopes of coaxing a warming fire back to life. With a sigh, the teenager dropped the stick where the fire had been the night before and she looked over at where the Fanelian prince lay, still fast asleep. She picked up the fishing pole that rested by his side, she had never fished before…now was as good a time as any to start learning.

"What are you doing?" someone said unexpectedly from behind her. Despite herself, Star jumped and turned around. Chid stood behind her, staring incredulously at the fishing pole held uncomfortably in her hands.

The young woman shrugged and faced the lake again. "What do you want now?" she asked, her voice colder than usual, letting him know that she had not forgiven him for the events that had taken place the night before.

Chid reached down and tried to pull the fishing pole out of the girl's hands, but her grip on it was too strong. "A lady shouldn't have to do these things," he said smoothly.

Star tugged hard at the fishing pole and the man lost his grip on it. He watched her confusedly, "Whoever told you I was a lady must have been on something," she said. "I pull my own weight around here, and if that means fishing while the kid is asleep, then that's what I'll do. If you insist on hanging around, make yourself useful." The teenager tried, and failed, to cast. Aggravated with her own inability, Star tossed the fishing pole aside, "Damn!"

She looked around and was thankful that Chid was gone. The young woman felt something soft rub against her leg and she looked down at the creature she had named after her brother, no…her brother come back to her. Star fell backwards onto the ground and the animal climbed onto her stomach where it curled up to watch the sunset with her. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said as she idly stroked the creature's soft fur. In a matter of moments, she had fallen back asleep.

Blai awoke with the sun shining against his face and he turned over onto his other side and muttered something incomprehensible. Within a matter of moments, however, the boy sat bolt upright, suddenly remembering the events of the past night. He looked around for the others and his face softened into a gentle smile when he caught sight of Star's sleeping form, lying beside the lake as it glowed from the light of the morning sun, with the cat-rabbit creature curled up on her stomach. Blai crawled over and reclaimed his fishing pole, his eyes lingering over her face before he quickly shook his head and stood up.

Aiichirou sprung off of the girl's stomach and it hissed angrily at Blai when its eyes fell on him before it ran behind the veil of trees. "Aiichirou!" Blai called, if Star woke up before the creature came back she would be sure to bite off his head, if he was lucky. Completely abandoning the fishing rod, the boy ran after it as the animal led him to the clearing in which Star and Chid had their encounter the night before. "Come back here or Star's going to be really angry with me," he said without any real conviction. He sat down and sighed, it wasn't as if he had given up on bringing the animal back, it was just that at that moment he no longer cared.

Aiichirou hissed and arched his back like an angry cat, with all his furs standing on end. "Oh, come on! Are you mad at me, too? What did I do?"

"He says you don't know who you are anymore," Star said as she came into the clearing through the trees.

The boy looked up at the sound of her voice, "What do you mean?" he asked. "I know exactly who I am: Blai, first and only child of Fanelia and heir to the throne…" he looked at the ground as he said the last part. How he hated that...heir to the throne, if only it was as glamorous as it sounded. But, all that responsibility, all that pressure, it was really the last thing he wanted.

Star smiled and sat next to him on the ground, "What I meant was that Aiichirou knows there's something wrong and it makes him mad. He says you have to get over it and that things will work out. That was why he liked you before, he likes people who don't think too much on the bad things that happen."

"How do you know all that?" No normal person could manage to communicate so completely with an animal; then again, Star was no normal person.

The girl laughed lightly, she had a lovely laugh when she wasn't mocking you or trying to be cruel to you in any possible way. "He _is_ my brother, after all," she said as she held out her arms for the creature to jump into. It curled up in the crook of her arms and she nuzzled it briefly before she stood up and said, "Let's go back; Freid will be worried sick about us," she added with disgust.

Blai watched her retreating back for a moment before he decided to follow her back to their make-shift campsite. "No," he said quietly, miserably, but quietly nonetheless, "he'll be worried about _you_." When they reached where they had decided to camp, Chid was sitting at the edge of the lake with the fishing rod firmly in his hands as if daring anyone to take it away from him and a sheathed sword on the ground beside him. Two freshly cooked fish were already cooking over a brilliant fire. How long had they been gone, for him to have been able to do all of this?

"Almost ready to go?" the man asked cheerfully as he pulled hard at the fishing pole and its string flew out of the water. He had apparently eaten, and was merely continuing to fish to pass the time. They must have been gone for a very, very long time for him to have been able to do all of that.

The young woman sighed and the two teenagers sat down to eat the fish that their third companion had been kind enough to catch for them. But, before too long, the girl tossed the remnants of her fish, which she only barely touched, to Aiichirou, who took it happily. She grabbed her backpack and, realizing that she intended to leave quickly, Blai shoved the rest of his own fish in his mouth and fumbled with his sheath belt. No matter how many times he tied the stupid thing around his waist, he could never seem to get used to it.

Star chuckled and, with only the slightest smile playing on her lips, she tied the belt around the boy's waist for him. Blai blushed at the closeness and when he caught his old friend's eye, he nodded in a gesture that not even he understood. "Where are we going?" he asked when the girl had finished and backed away to a distance that was more comfortable for the both of them.

The girl shrugged unconcernedly. "I'm just following it," she said impatiently. Blai was about to ask what 'it' was before he realized that she was referring to the EscaFlowne. "That's what I've been doing this whole time."

"No, I mean…never mind," the boy ended dully and his voice trailed out in a thought that was lost even to his own mind.

"What? Can't you hear it?" Star asked, turning around to face the boy, "You're the heir to the Fanelian throne and you can't even hear the voice of your own Guymelef?"

"They don't normally have voices."

She looked away and started walking towards the veil of trees, before she disappeared behind them, she said, "This one does. I can hear it screaming." Kanzaki and Van were probably on their way to it as well, or so the teenager from the Mystic Moon assumed. After all, despite everything she said about her cousin's abilities, she could probably hear the Melef's screaming.

* * *

Van was helping Hitomi to regain her balance; they were standing at the bottom of a deep canyon and the woman was looking mournfully up at the sky above them. "Why is it that whenever there's a ditch in the ground I seem to fall in it?" she asked sadly as she managed to regain her balance and take a step forward. Everything seemed fine, it didn't feel as it anything was broken. It was a good thing Van had broken her fall.

The king laughed, "Are you sure it's this way?" he asked, as single-minded as ever. The woman didn't say anything and he looked over to see her nod solemnly in his direction. Why was she suddenly so quiet? "Good, we have to get there before they do. The EscaFlowne didn't just get up and walk away on its own. Someone took it, and it might be a trap that I want to make sure they don't fall into it." There was no need to ask who 'they' were, that much was painfully obvious.

"Wow, Van," Hitomi said with a note of faint surprise in her voice, "you've grown up a lot." The Van she used to know, the one she had fallen in love with so long ago, and never stopped loving even after all that time, was kind and caring but quick on the subject of revenge.

"Yeah? Well, I'd like to get my hands on whomever it was that took the EscaFlowne, it's mine!" That sounded much more like the old Van, the one she knew.

* * *

The three companions sat down for a quiet lunch, berries and other such things they had found along the way. They hadn't spoken much since they had left their camp at the lovely lake behind them, and Star was okay with that. She had a lot of things to think about, so many thoughts buzzing through her mind like angry bees. The girl hadn't touched any of the food she had been given and instead she watched the rise and fall of Aiichirou's chest as he slept soundly, curled up on her lap. Star placed the creature gently on the ground beside her and stood up to brush herself off. "Let's get going," at least she had the courtesy to wait for them to finish eating before she made her way towards the EscaFlowne once more.

Blai sighed, stood up, and tapped the fuzzy creature with his foot to wake it up before he and Chid followed the girl deeper into the woods. How symbolic. The two boys, both following the one they loved…a scream broke through the boy's thoughts. With a sudden burst of energy, the boys ran towards the source. The dark-haired prince got there first, but just barely.

He and Chid had just broken out of the forest and were standing in front of a deep chasm just a little way off in the distance. At the very edge of the cliff that no doubt plunged to the depths of the canyon, Star lay half-conscious with a Guymelef making its way ever closer to her. Without thinking, Blai lunged forward and grabbed the girl to take her to safety back inside the forest. The Melef was large, and would, hopefully, have more difficulty maneuvering around inside the forest than Blai and the others.

In some unspoken consent, the Duke Freid had gone off to distract the Melef, directing its attention away from the girl and her intended rescuer. It was strange how well they worked together, even though each knew that they were rivals for the love of the same girl. Then again, that may have come from them being best friends and constant companions when they were younger.

The girl's eyes fluttered open, "Let go of me!" she screamed when she realized what was going on, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks. In her mad attempt to get out of the boy's grasp, Star punched him in the face. Needless to say, he dropped her. The girl landed neatly on her feet while the boy landed, with just a bit less finesse, on his face.

"Keep going! It's coming after us!" Chid yelled as he cut through the trees. Star pulled Blai up by his collar and his eyes hurried over her ungloved hand bearing a scar on the underside of her wrist. As the three of them dodged their way through the trees they heard crashing behind them as the Guymelef knocked through the very same trees that the group had to evade. So much for the forest being safer.

They skirted through the trees and found themselves caught between the wall of a looming cliff and the Melef. The crashing stopped and instead of the Guymelef the three were expecting to appear, a figure dressed in a white robe with a hood covering his face stepped out from the woods. "Our Master would like to meet with you," he spoke directly to Star, completely ignoring her companions. The man extended a heavily gloved hand for her to take. Chid stepped in front of the girl whose fingers were wrapped around the wrist of her ungloved hand. "Oh ho? So the Princess has found herself a knight in shining armor," he said interestedly. The man's head turned in Blai's direction, but unable to see the face beneath the hood, the boy had no way of telling exactly where the newcomer was looking.

"_Two_ knights," he said and Blai felt himself grow cold. The man's head snapped back to Star's direction, "Must you always find someone else to protect you?" Those words cut through the girl like a knife; he must have been one of the people from back then, from that time so long ago yet almost yesterday. "Come with me, Princess."

Chid got into a defensive position, ready to protect the girl he loved at any cost. "Stay away from her!"  
"My, my, whatever shall I do?" the man said in a bored tone as he pulled off his hood to reveal stunning green eyes and long blonde hair tied loosely at the nape of his neck. He would have been handsome had it not been for the hollowness in those otherwise enchanting eyes and the satanic smile playing on his lips. "And me without my weapon…"

He was toying with them, "Chid, get out of the way!" Star yelled, using the man's name in her panic for the first time. "You don't know what you're getting into! Get out of here!" The man turned around to look at her, stunned, and in that instant he was knocked to the ground and the other man stood in his place with that horrible grin growing wider.

"Not much of a knight," the man laughed, licking his lips as his gaze bore into the teenager.

"You hit him while his back was turned!"

The man in white shrugged, "His guard was down."

"Have you no honor?"

He looked like he was actually thinking about it. "No."

Blai watched as the obvious conclusion formed in the girl's mind. "Star, don't!" he lunged forward and grabbed her hand to pull her away. But the minute his hand touched the bare skin on hers, she screamed. Wings tore painfully from the boy's back, it didn't normally feel like this when he used them. The man in white cursed loudly and stepped backwards, but he would not retreat without completing his mission, the punishment for doing so would have been much worse.

Star flew up in the air and out of the boy's grasp. Her hair floated around her and a red dragon appeared, covering her protectively with its ruby wings. When the dragon faded a teenager with long black hair appeared where Star had been. They looked almost exactly the same but for the lack of red at the tips of her hair and the manic glint in her cool blue eyes. The woman laughed, a cold hard sound that sent chills running down Blai's spine. _Not again,_ he thought…but this time, it was different.

"I see the experiment wasn't a complete failure after all, our master was right," the man in white said with that horrible smile back on his face.

The girl touched the ground, "If I were you," she said coolly, even her voice was exactly the same as Star's albeit the unnatural chill, "I wouldn't sound so pleased. But I suppose that everyone is allowed a little enjoyment before they die."

The man ignored her last comment and bent down on one knee, his head bent low so that he left the back of his neck unprotected and at the girl's mercy. "Princess, my master would like to meet you."

"One: stop calling me princess. My name is Sayako and I will answer to nothing else," the man nodded as if he was actually listening to any of her demands. "Two: tell me who this Master is…"

"I have been given orders never to say my master's name. But if you would be so kind as to come with me—"

"Heh, don't think so. Last thing: like hell I'd ever go with you!" She disappeared and when she reappeared in front of the man her ungloved hand was glowing blue. She thrust her palm into his chest and he flew backwards, a gaping hole where she had touched him. The woman—Sayako?—turned towards Blai and he took a step backwards. "I've been waiting for such a long time for someone to awaken me, and now that I'm out I'll never give this body back to that weakling. In return for the favor I think I might spare your life. Be grateful, little boy…" She turned around and started to walk back through the veil of trees into the forest.


	14. Three Sides

**Fortune 14-Three Sides**

The young woman opened her eyes; it was so dark…covered in a blackness so completely that she could not see. She spun through the dark, bottomless void hugging her knees to her chest as tightly as she could as if hoping, by some miracle, she could collapse into herself and just disappear into the black void. Star shivered slightly. No, now was not the time or the place to be thinking such things, no matter what she said she wanted to live, not only for herself but for those whose lives were cut short on her account.

Just as she suddenly regained the desire to live, a brilliant white light shone in the distance, blinding her after such complete darkness. The teenager shut her eyes in an attempt to block out its radiance and held out her hands as she stretched her legs out beneath her. She hoped that she would be able to catch her balance in this upside-down rabbit hole, her own personal Wonderland, convenient. Star stopped spinning and tentatively opened her eyes, the light was still so far away, but it didn't seem nearly as blinding as before.

The girl made her way toward the source of the strange light, her footsteps echoing eerily; the sound resonated from everywhere around her and yet…and yet it felt as if it wasn't coming from anywhere at all. Eventually Star caught sight of the source of the light, a woman with flowing blonde hair and white angel's wings enveloping her. She was glowing, as were the fallen feathers scattered around her. Star took a few steps closer and noticed that the woman's eyes were closed, she was asleep.

"Hello?" Star asked, shuddering at the unnerving echo of her voice. Now, she was standing in front of the woman and saw her eyelids flutter open over her brilliantly colored eyes. "Where are we?"

For a moment the woman looked surprised for a reason that Star couldn't even begin to fathom, or want to. "We are here," her voice was lovely, familiar…like Star's own, but older, more mature and it, too, echoed eerily in the darkness.

"Where is here?"

"The lost world, we are inside of you."

"Lost world? Inside of me? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

The woman did not move at all and her wings covered most of her face so that Star could not see past her entrancing gaze. "There is no joke. This place, this world is my prison as well as _hers_, and now it is yours."

The teenager wanted to collapse, to fall down and cry on those delicate shoulders. What was going on? She didn't think like that, she had forced herself not to do so a long time ago. "Don't mind me if none of this makes any fucking sense!" she yelled instead. "If you won't tell me where we are, at least tell me who the hell you are," she demanded.

"I have told you the name of the place in which we are confined," the woman said, ignoring Star's choice of words, "and I…I am the angel."

"Give me a straight answer, damn it!"

"I already have, countless times. I am the angel…I am you…I am your future. This is the world in which we wait, she and I, while you are awake. We wait until you fall asleep so that we may escape this darkness…we are in the lost world, we are inside of you," the woman repeated.

Star shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'll just pretend that made sense," she said, "will you tell me how to get out of this place?"

"You wait…wait until _she_ goes back to sleep…That is the curse which we are forced to bear."

"Is this how you live your life?" The teenager's voice took on a kinder note despite herself. "How can you stand just waiting?"

"This is my reality…to wait for you…to wait for her…. Now it is your turn to wait as well."

"Just how long have you been waiting?"

"For an eternity…for centuries…for decades…for years…for months…for days…for hours…for minutes…for seconds…I have been waiting since before I was born, and yet I have never been waiting at all. The concept of time is lost for us, for me who has yet to be born and for she who has already died. She was waiting for you long ago, but you denied her and so now we both wait. It is finally her turn to see the light."

* * *

"Wait…" Blai said meekly as the woman started walking away, then again, louder this time, "Wait!" The girl, Sayako, turned around, her face unreadable. "What have you done with Star?"

"How cliché…" she laughed, that cold sound that not only sent chills down the prince's spine, but now seemed to freeze it entirely. "Don't worry, the girl is still here," she patted her heart, "it is my turn to be out, my turn to be in control."

"Give her back! That body doesn't belong to you!"

Sayako laughed again, she glared at the boy with those hard, blue eyes when her laughter had died. "Simple-minded fool…if this body wasn't mine, how would I be using it? I have every right to it. Besides," she said, turning around once more to walk away, "she can come out whenever she wants, whenever she feels like living again."

* * *

"This isn't fair," Star said quietly, her fists clenched at her sides, "This isn't fair!" she said again, louder this time.

"Such is the nature of our curse," the angel said solemnly.

"I'm not going to wait, that just isn't the way I work. How can you stand to just sit around waiting? I could never wait for someone else. I have to get out of here…will you come with me? That way you won't have to wait any more, you can experience life yourself. It's a lot more fun when you're living it yourself and not just waiting for someone else to tell you how to live it." What was she saying? What sort of garbage was coming out of her mouth? Star couldn't believe she was even capable of saying such stupid, sentiment, optimistic words.

"Only one of us may be awake at a time," so that was why she had been so surprised when she woke up. The woman stood up and her wings folded behind her back so that Star could now see her every expression; the angel wore a radiant smile on her face. "It seems as if it is almost your turn again."

What was the woman talking about? Star had no idea how she was going to get out; did the angel somehow think that Star was capable of doing the impossible? Of leaving the void that was her own mind, as she was told it was. "Let me out of here!" she screamed in her own frustration, unable to come up with any other escape routes.

* * *

Sayako dropped to her knees, her hands covering her ears and Blai was reminded of a little child who was trying desperately to block out a sound. But there was no sound, at least none that the boy could hear. "No! It's still my turn!" the girl yelled as her hands moved from her ears and she hugged herself as if trying to keep herself from flying apart.

* * *

Star heard her own voice answer back, "No! It's still my turn!" it said. It was so strange, to hear her own voice as if it was coming from someone else. What was going on?

"Let me out!" the teenager tried again. She felt something gentle touch her shoulder and turned her head to see the angel standing by her side, facing upwards with her pure white wings outstretched from her back.

"Let her out, my friend," the angel said, still facing upwards so that her short blonde hair fell gently on her face and shoulders.

"Sani? You're awake? You can't be awake!"

Star looked puzzled. Sani? She was about so say something when the angel finally turned her gaze upon the teenager once more and placed a hand over her lips. 'Be quiet' she said without using any words. "It is your turn to go back to sleep, Sayako." Star gasped…Sayako…her old name, the name she tried so hard to forget, the name that carried the full weight of Star's regret and suffering…the name that reminded her of the murders of those she loved.

"No!"

"Stop acting like such a child. Come now, my friend, we are bound by the curse, you must return to your sleep."

"Just you wait until I get back in there, Sani, you will regret bringing me back."

Star looked worriedly at the angel, but the woman merely smiled as she took her hand off of the teenager's shoulders. "At least it will be more interesting than waiting," she said. The moment the angel's hand left her shoulder, Star felt herself being lifted by some unknown force and she was blinded by a white light, just like the one that had lead her to the angel in the first place.

"Star? Is that you?" Blai asked, he sounded fuzzy, far away. Muddled, why? Star opened her eyes, she was lying with her face in the dirt, no wonder the boy had sounded that way.

The girl slowly got into a sitting position and her companion's face came into focus. "Of course it's me." There was no 'of course' about it.

The boy hugged her, blinking back tears; he would not let her see him cry, "I'm so glad you're back…I was scared," he mentally smacked himself, why did he say that?

Star stiffened under the unexpected embrace and patted him awkwardly on the back. She wasn't used to such things after such a long time of trying so hard to distance herself from the rest of the world, but it felt strangely nice. "It's alright," she said before she punched him and pushed the boy off of her, "don't ever do that again."


	15. Fragile Friendships

**Fortune 15-Fragile Friendships**

Star sat hugging her legs to her chest as she watched Blai attempting to start a fire. A strange, uncomfortable silence had once against stretched over them as they waited for their third companion to wake, after all, it would be much too much of a hassle to carry the oldest of them half-way around Gaea and back. The boy sat back as the fire sparked to life and his eyes watched its flickering flames. Pleased with himself though he was, he could not so much as bring himself to give an accomplished smile. The reason…well: Chid. Said reason moaned softly and stirred. His blue eyes fluttered open and Chid sat up slowly, holding his head in his hands.

"What happened?" he asked miserably.

"You were knocked out," Star answered bluntly before Blai could say anything. She had a feeling that if any words were going to come out of the boy's mouth, they would be nothing less than scathing. The girl popped a few berries in her mouth and pointed to a large leaf on which lay similar berries and what looked like a burnt pile of mud.

Chid stared at it with a look of obvious disgust, "What is this?" he asked, sounding afraid of what possible answer he may receive.

"Dinner," Chid grimaced when his long-time friend replied. That was just what he had been afraid of. "I couldn't figure out how to cook a bird, but I tried…" Obviously, he had failed miserably.

"And there is a very good reason I didn't have any," Star said sarcastically, though it was clear that she did not need to point that fact out. "Believe it or not, the kid's makes a worse cook than I do," Blai glared at the young woman who merely ignored him and popped a few more berries into her mouth.

Tentatively, the blond man nibbled on the burnt…thing. Did it qualify as food? Immediately he dropped it back on the leaf and threw some of the berries into his mouth, hoping they would help to wash down the taste…Definitely worse than it looked, if that was possible. "So, do you have any news of the EscaFlowne?" he asked, changing the subject at the hurt look on his friend's face. How could he tell the boy that it sucked? No, Chid wasn't that sort of person.

"Yeah, actually…"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Blai asked angrily. Why would she have?

The girl leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes as she lifted her face towards the dark, moonless sky. "I didn't think it mattered, you're blindly blundering after me anyway…" True though it was it was also blunt and cruel. Not that it wasn't the kind of answer Blai wasn't expecting of her, but still…

"I do not!" the young, dark-haired prince yelled angrily. Liar…

"So what are they, my dear?" Chid asked politely.

Star noticeably grimaced and replied, "It's somewhere east of us, I can hear it." She casually lay down with her hands clasped behind her head. Once again she closed her eyes, as if listening to something that only she could hear, "It isn't very far. But I think it's trying to warn me about something…something that's waiting there for me…" Warning or not, that was not about to stop her from finding it. The girl couldn't quite understand why finding the EscaFlowne was suddenly so important to her.

"It's pretty amazing that you could figure all that out," Blai asked, quite impressed despite himself.

The girl shrugged, which looked quite odd considering the position she was in, "Thanks to these." She pulled out her tarot deck and brandished it in front of her two companions. And, as she had already explained, the Melef was loud.

"Oh," the teenage boy sounded amazed, "so that's what you were doing. My dad once told me that Hitomi could tell the future with visions and by reading messages in cards…" But he hadn't actually believed the stories…he hadn't actually believed in Hitomi's existence at all, nothing more than a fairy tale.

The girl rolled over onto her side, "Get some sleep," she said sternly, "you guys seem pretty worn out," not as worn out as she, "'Night." She closed her eyes and to all appearances fell asleep.

The two boys sat in an uncomfortable silence. Well, only one party saw it as such, the other remained blissfully unaware of the strangeness that had fallen over them. It was strange how much time had changed the two of them. Long ago, they had been best friends…almost brothers. But now, well, all of that was changing because of one strange girl, one very strange girl, from the Mystic Moon. Was it really cursed? Was it because of the curse that the two boys were drifting apart, or was it something else?

"Chid," Blai began nervously, cutting through the silence as if with a knife, "do you remember my mother?" The young prince hugged his knees to his chest; it sounded childish, that he knew. But with that one question the awkwardness boys dissolved and they were thrown back in time to when they were both much younger, sitting by the lake near the castle in Freid under a moonless night sky similar to the one under which they found themselves now. It was as if time had stopped and things had never changed between them.

The duke of Freid laughed softly, not a cruel laugh, but not a happy one. "That's like asking me if I knew my own mother. Yeah, I remember her," he said, on a more serious vein, "she was a magnificent woman. You haven't asked me that question in a long time," he ruffled his friend's hair briefly.

"Ten years…"

"I can't believe you remember that..."

"What was she like?" an age-old question, one that Chid had heard countless times before.

The blond boy smiled at his friend, "We certainly have plenty of time…" he leaned back and looked at the sky as he tried to remember everything he could about the woman for the sake of his friend, so that they could share the memories of someone who was dear to them both.


	16. The Voice From Far Away

**Fortune 16-The Voice From Far Away**

Star awoke late, late for her anyway, and looked around. She couldn't believe that she left those two alone. Something told her there was a lot of tension between the two boys and although she had registered that fact, she had refused to take notice of it.

The girl let out a relieved sigh at the sight of the two boys sleeping near the deceased flame. Despite herself a smile formed over her lips as she left silently in search of breakfast.

Not long afterward, the blond man's eyes fluttered open as well and he, too, looked around, though he was in search of Star. When he saw that the girl wasn't there he let out a deep sigh, what was he going to do with her? Already, Chid had confessed his love for the girl, but already she had denied him that love. What would it take him to break through that impenetrable shell? To thaw out that ice cold heart? Just as those thoughts were fluttering through his head the other boy moaned and sat up.

Usually, Blai was a late sleeper, but lately—possibly due to his recent decision to go on an adventure—he had been waking up earlier and earlier. Their truce of the night before forgotten, the two boys silently went about tending the fire—or tempting it to start again—and looking for firewood.

From opposite sides of the new flame the boys watched each other silently, neither knowing what to say, or even if he wanted to say something. Blai, because when he saw his best friend kissing Star realized that he was in love, and Chid because he had the distinct impression that the younger boy was both uncomfortable and angry.

Star walked through the trees with a handful of berries for each of the boys, "We need to head east," she said to them both as she handed them their meager breakfast. Blai stared at it uncertainly, much the same way Chid looked at Blai's previous attempts at cooking. "Well, sorry, _your highness_," the girl said sarcastically, kicking dirt into the fire that the boys had worked so hard to coax into being. "That was all I could carry, take it or leave it."

With a sigh, Blai shoved the berries into his mouth and stood up, ready to follow the girl to wherever she was leading them. He looked at his long-time friend and saw him do the same. "Let's go," she was unused to being the one to start the conversations. Usually it was the young prince of Fanelia who would force her to talk. Being on the other side of the stick was disturbing.

Tired of trying to make her two companions grow up, Star ran off ahead without a word. Of course, the boys followed…

The teenage girl stopped dead in her tracks, it felt as if she had just run through a pool of water, but that wasn't possible, was it? She looked back to ask the boys what they thought, but they had disappeared from view and instead she found herself surrounded by darkness with only one way to see the world outside.

"Sayako," the voice echoed from all around her. Yet, it was a comforting voice, so familiar. Where had she heard it before? "Sayako, I'm sorry," 'Sorry for what?' the girl wanted to yell to that voice, but found that she was unable to. "It's my fault, it's all my fault. All that time I was pretending to…" and so the voice faded into the darkness from whence it came.

"Wait!" Star found that she suddenly had control of her voice once again. "Wait, who are you? What's going on?" But her questions were in vain as the darkness around her shattered and she found herself trapped in yet another illusion.

* * *

Blai and Chid ran into something invisible blocking their paths. "What?" Blai asked confusedly.

"No idea," his friend answered, neither had to complete their sentences, for they both knew the other's train of thought. Experimentally, the blond man reached out and felt something like water running down in an invisible stream. Strange…how were they supposed to get through?

* * *

Van and Hitomi were sitting at the bottom of a deep crevice. The king looked up and said something to his companion that their observer could not hear. The young woman nodded her head and stood up, but before Star could figure out what it was they were planning on doing, a Guymelef jumped down from the cliff above. Hitomi let out a scream and Van jumped in front of her to protect her, but even the impulsive young man knew it was useless, that he would be unable to defeat it without the aid of the EscaFlowne.

Somewhere far away, Star heard a distant voice calling to her. It was deep and raspy, yet somehow comforting. "Come find me. I'm here, I'm right here…" Where here? Star wanted to ask, she looked around frantically but could not catch sight of the mysterious Guymelef that she had only ever seen in her cousins memories. When would she find the answers to her questions?

Blai and Chid watched as Star stumbled out of seemingly no where and fell onto the ground. "Star!" Blai said, running forward. But he was an instant too slow as his friend reached the girl first. The young prince balled his hands into fists but refused to otherwise show what he was feeling.

"Kanzaki…" the girl moaned as the blond man turned her over onto her back and leaned over her to wipe a few unruly strands of black hair out of her face. The girl's eyes snapped open and she stood up, hitting Chid on the head but completely ignoring the impact as if it had never happened, "They're in trouble. We have to find them!" It was the first time Blai had seen the girl in such a panic since they had met. Did Hitomi…did that woman from the Mystic Moon have that much power over the mysterious young girl?

"Calm down," Chid said soothingly and once again Blai felt himself swell with anger, "tell us what happened."

Star took a deep breath and told them everything that she had seen. When she was finished Chid stood up abruptly and looked at his childhood friend as Blai looked at the ground. So, his father was in danger…that was, if what the girl had seen was right. He had spent so long blindly following after her why was he suddenly doubting her?

"Let's go, then," Blai said with more force than he had originally meant. Star nodded and stood up as well and watched the dark-haired prince run into the woods in an attempt to find his father and Hitomi. The young girl couldn't help but smile, as future king of Fanelia it was about time he took charge of things.

_"It's my fault, it's all my fault. All that time I was pretending to…"_ Pretending to what? And how did that person know her real name? _"Come find me. I'm here, I'm right here…"_ But where? Where?


	17. A Light that Brings Back Memories

**Fortune 17-A Light that Brings Back Memories**

"Hitomi, get out of here," Van yelled, trying to keep the Guymelef distracted, although it's target clearly seemed to be the strange young woman. She looked strangely at the Fanelian king, he certainly hadn't changed. Hitomi wasn't sure whether she had changed or not, but she would not leave him behind. There wasn't anything she could do to help him, but she wasn't going to leave.

* * *

Star stopped mid-sprint and looked reproachfully at Blai, who had crashed right into her. "The pendant," she said, holding out her hand. She knew that the boy had it and silently cursed herself for not thinking of it before.

"What?" he asked, rubbing his head and looking just as reproachfully back. It had been her fault they had crashed into each other, she was the one who stopped.

The girl sighed as Chid stopped cleanly right next to them. "The pendant," she repeated, still holding her hand out for said object. The boy nodded in understanding and pulled his father's, Hitomi's, pendant out of his pocket. "What exactly is going on?" he asked curiously as he handed the necklace over to the girl.

She looked at him condescendingly and when she spoke it was on the tone of one explaining the obvious to a two-year-old. "Hitomi and Van are in trouble, I'm going to use the pendant to find them."

"No!" Blai said angrily, maybe it was her tone of voice that finally got to him, "I mean, what kind of trouble are they in."

Star looked stunned, she had not been expecting that, "They're being attacked by a Guymelef. Like the one from before," meaning, when she had been locked inside of her own mind to step aside for the woman who acted like the devil himself. Chid looked between them, slightly confused. He had been unconscious that entire time and therefore had no idea what was going on. But, as was to be expected, the girl from the Mystic Moon completely ignored the older man's confusion and went on attempting to find her cousin and the king of Fanelia through the pendant.

* * *

Hitomi tripped over backwards and watched wide-eyed as the sword of the giant Melef descended over her. Van slowly stood up from where he had hit the ground from the machine's last blow and as soon as the situation registered in his mind, he yelled Hitomi's name and reached out for her. A strange glow engulfed them both and they looked out not to far in the distance where another column of light had formed.

Star's hand fell to her side as a bright light penetrated her closed eye-lids. _Not again!_ She screamed in her thoughts. It was the same light, the same light as the one from when she was younger, the same light as the one that had brought her to Gaea. She opened her eyes as she felt her feet lift off the ground and looked for her two companions to see if they, too, were coming along for the ride.

In an instant, the three of them had disappeared and when Star opened her eyes yet again, she was in that strange crevice in the ground in which her vision had shown her Hitomi and Van were fighting the Melef. But when the teenager looked around, there was no sign of any of them.

"Great, now how are we going to get out of this one?" she complained, rather unusual for her, as she looked up at the canyon's looming walls.

She felt something rub against her leg and looked down, Aiichirou had come along with them. Reluctantly, the young woman smiled as a sudden idea hit her. She looked around and caught sight of her two companions who were also slowly standing up and taking in their surroundings. "Blai, you have wings, right? Can you carry us up top?" The circumstances did not give the young prince much choice as he, too, looked up at the far-off top.

Blai sighed and spread his wings, grabbing Star by the hand as he did so. She looked at him reproachfully and bent down to pick up the cat-like creature that she had named after her brother before uncomfortably shoving her own gloved hand into his. Of course, the boy had realized after much thought that when he had touched the girl's skin, she had transformed into that self-proclaimed demon. He lifted her into the air and when the boy was sure that she was safely on the ground, he went back down to carry his old friend.


	18. Find Me and I Will Take You Far Away

**Fortune 18-Find Me and I Will Take You Far Away**

Star took a moment to look at her surroundings. This was definitely the place that her visions had told her Hitomi and Van had been, but where could they be now? She tried the pendant again, hoping it would show her the way. But the jewel did not move, hanging there glowing ever so faintly from the distant presence of the teenager's cousin. The girl sighed and pulled the necklace over her head, hopefully it would show her the way, if not she would have to run on pure instincts, almost never a good idea in her case.

The two boys looked at her, their own worry increasing as they watched her brows furrow in frustration. "We'd better get going, we need to find them as quickly as possible."

"Why though?" the question had remained at the back of Blai's mind and finally he let it out. He had been wondering it for a while, sure Star had said that Hitomi and his father were in danger but certainly they were out of its reaches now…

The girl gave him a condescending look and Blai glared back angrily, he did not like being treated that way. "Because, moron," –moron? Certainly she could think of something better than that—"Van is the only one who can pilot the EscaFlowne, or do you not know the rules to your city's own Guymelef?"

"Of course he doesn't," Chid cut in before his friend could find a way to make things worse, "Van never used the EscaFlowne, he was sure that it would never be needed again. Why should he have bothered to tell his son if the EscaFlowne was to be kept in peace?"

Star shrugged, she hadn't thought of that. But still, one should know a bit about one's own things, or so she believed. "Unless you can think of another way to get the EscaFlowne back to the ruins of Fanelia," Blai grimaced despite himself, "we need your father." The girl whispered something to Aiichirou and set the creature on the ground. It looked curiously up at her before taking off at a run. "This way!" Star shouted, following her 'brother.'

* * *

"We have to get there before they do," Van said for the thousandth time.

His companion sighed and sat down on the ground, she was tired after so much excitement, and then there had been that strange light. The light that brought her to Gaea, the light that brought Van to her that first time so long ago. "I know that, Van," she said, "being impatient isn't going to help us get there any faster."

Van stopped as well and looked down at the woman while running his hands through his dark, naturally messy hair, "I know. I just…" He didn't need to say any more, Hitomi understood completely…probably understood better than the king himself.

* * *

"They're around here, I know they're around here!" Star yelled in frustration as she continued running after the cat-creature. The other two didn't answer, though they suspected correctly that even if they did the girl would not have heard them. She was lost in her own world, something that only her cousin seemed able to do to her…something that both boys wanted desperately to be able to do. To mean so much to her, but…well, there were a lot of 'buts.'

The creature came to a sudden halt and mewed reproachfully when Star tripped over it. "What is it?" Chid asked, as if he would have been able to understand what Aiichirou's motives were any way. For some reason, it seemed that the only one who could understand it was Star and her companions had no idea why, though she seemingly did. After all, Aiichirou _was_ her beloved brother. "What is it?" Star echoed when she got back onto her feet and brushed the dust and dirt off of her clothes.

The creature mewed again and Star laughed as she pulled a twig out of her hair. "Really? They're right over there?" she sprinted forward and out of sight of the two boys.

The tension completely lost between them, Blai and Chid looked at each other and broke out into laughter. People were strange that way, they were so confused that they couldn't help but laugh at the other's confusion, and at their own. "They're right there!" Star yelled cheerfully when she had returned, "Come on!" She grabbed Blai by the arm and pulled him through the trees, Aiichirou and Chid close behind.

Sure enough, there sat Hitomi, speaking intently to Van. When they caught sight of the other three, they, too broke into hysterical laughter. Relief, maybe? "I can't believe you guys found us!" Hitomi said, bringing her cousin close and looking her over. "You look a little worse for wear," she said taking in the sight of leaves and twigs in her cousin's long black hair and dust and cuts all over her clothes.

Back to her usual self, Star pushed her cousin away and scoffed at her. Blai smiled at the sight, he knew that she was as happy to have found the two of them as Blai and Chid were. "How did you find us?" Van asked his son, forcing his gaze off Hitomi and Star.

"Aiichirou," the young prince told his father as he pointed a finger toward the cat-creature which was now cleaning himself thoroughly. Van raised an eyebrow but did not inquire further as he looked to the sky, the sun was setting and already the two moons were appearing in the sky.

"We should get to sleep soon," he said and Hitomi nodded, adding, "I have a feeling we have a long trip still ahead of us." Star said nothing but followed the Fanelian king's gaze to the sky and after a moment she sat on the ground with her back against a tree and fell asleep. Blai looked around at the others, the excitement must have really tired them all out because despite the fact that it was early, they were all asleep and he, too, was feeling sleepy.

* * *

"You belong here, with me," someone said. Star looked around, it was dark, complete darkness that surrounded her and threatened to suffocate her. Suddenly the world flashed and a bright white light engulfed her. Someone stepped out of the light but Star could not see the person's face. It was familiar, so familiar…so comforting, yet disturbing. It was the voice of someone who had died and come back to haunt her, of that she was certain.

"Who are you?" Star asked, she seemed to be asking that question a lot lately.

The person shook his or her head, "You know who I am in your heart," what a strange thing to say, "and you belong by my side." That was most likely true, it sounded true to Star at least.

Another voice, "Find me," find me? Find who? Who was it? "I am here," where here? That was fairly vague…

"Find me," said the person before they disappeared, "we are both here, you know where to go." _Yes, yes I know what I have to do,_ thought Star. Yes, she knew where she had to go.

* * *

Star's eyes fluttered open and she stood up, she knew where she had to go. She soaked in the sight of her friends one last time before she got up and turned her back on them…before she ran away.


	19. Almost There

**Fortune 19-Almost There**

Star stopped and sat down on a mossy rock, wet with early morning dew. She hadn't woken Aiichirou when she left the night before, it would have been nice to have his company about then. No turning back now, and besides, it was probably better that he didn't come along. This was something that she had to figure out on her own. Who in Gaea knew her real name, who back home even knew her real name?

The girl looked up at the sky through the trees, the sun was just starting to rise and if she wanted to put more distance between herself and the others, she had better keep moving. So, reluctantly the dark-haired young woman stood up, brushed her hair out of her eyes, and ran forward. She seemed to be doing a great deal of running as of late.

When she burst through the trees, the teenager noticed that the sun was high in the sky, but she was also out in the open. Star stopped only long enough to look around for cover, a place to sleep.

* * *

"You're close," said that familiar voice as the person stood silhouetted by the light of the EscaFlowne behind him/her.

"Who are you?"

Star could almost feel the person smile at her; it wasn't a cruel smile, but warm and comforting. "You will see. But sometimes I wonder if what we're doing is right…"

"We?"

"My people, myself…was I right, Sayako?"

Damn, that voice was so familiar, if only Star could dig deep in her memory and find out who it was. "Where are you?" Fully knowing what the answer would be, she asked a more specific question, "Am I almost there?"

"Yes, we're both waiting, come find us." Just as the figure was about to disappear, Star heard the voice speak again, sadder this time. "I'm sorry, Sayako, I really am…" Then everything disappeared and Star woke up.

* * *

Almost there, the voice had said. The teenager had slept through the afternoon and jumped up to run forward again. Both moons shone brightly in the sky, surrounded by stars hanging against the black canvas of the night. Almost there…those words kept her going.

As she ran, Star wondered only briefly what had happened to the others. She hoped that they were safe without her. Then again they were probably safer without her than with her. Was Kanzaki worried? That was a stupid question. Was Blai worried? Star almost smacked herself, why in the world did she care about what that stupid kid thought about her? It was becoming increasingly annoying.


	20. But I Will Never Tell

**Fortune 20-But I Will Never Tell**

The others had woken up to find Star missing. In a bit of a panic, Hitomi hurried the others along as fast as they could go and they went out in search of her missing cousin. "Why would she go ahead like that? It's dangerous!" Hitomi's voice came out as a squeak so she shook her head and tried again, this time her voice was more even if only slightly higher than normal.

"Because she didn't want the rest of us to be in danger," Blai chose his words carefully, thinking back on all the time he had spent with that strange young woman. The other stared at him in surprise and he shrugged the thought off his shoulders, "She said something along those lines to me when we were just starting." Had she said it, or had he just gathered that from the way he acted. It was strange how easy it was becoming to read the strange girl.

Hitomi smiled and seemed to visibly calm down, "You're right…"

"And panicking isn't going to help us find her any quicker," Chid said with a smile also on his face. Somehow that smile caused Blai's heart to sink to the bottom of his stomach and he felt it make a cold splash as it hit the acid lurking there. If the blond kept smiling like that, Blai was sure that his heart would soon be devoured by the acid.

Just as they were starting to make their way after the girl, Chid pulled his old friend aside. "I need to talk to you," he said suggestively, his eyes told Blai this was going to be a subject the blond was not fond of.

* * *

Star looked up at the castle looming in front of her; it was the same cold, dark place that she had escaped from years ago. That same dark place that filled her nightmares with the faces of the loved ones who had come to her aid and sacrificed their lives for the one she was wasting. She wouldn't waste any more of it wanting to die, now she was going to actually _do_ something with it instead of watching it go by and waiting for it to end.

"We've been expecting you," a group of people, wearing those same cloaks and masks that burned in the girl's memory, walked out from inside the castle.

The girl stepped forward hesitantly, "Who's been expecting me?" Star couldn't help but ask.

One of the men chuckled but they did not say anything and instead they made their way back inside, not bothering to see if Star would follow, they knew she would. And, indeed, the teenager ran after them, not wanting to miss this opportunity to find out who it was that was calling to her, and to find the EscaFlowne as well.

* * *

"What is it?" Blai was fascinated with how even his voice sounded when his heart was hammering in his chest so loudly that he was surprised Chid wasn't covering his ears to block it out.

The blond sighed deeply and their eyes locked for a long moment before he broke away and looked everywhere but at his friend. "Listen, I know we both...like Star…" like was quite an understatement, but he went on. "I've been watching her while we were traveling and, well, I'm not going to continue with you. I'm going to go back to where Aunt Millerna and Uncle Dryden are waiting, find her for me?" he squeezed Blai's shoulder encouragingly, desperately, and finally brought his bright blue eyes back onto his old friend's face.

"What are you talking about?" Blai asked, not sure of how to take the situation.

"I mean, I don't have a chance with her," Chid's voice sounded slightly strained, "she's in love with someone else, even if she doesn't know it yet." He gave his friend a meaningful look but the naïve young prince still did not understand. Having once again regained his usual composure, the blond said farewell to his friend and walked back in the direction they had come, hoping to retrace his steps back to the crystal city.

Blai shook his head and wondered long and hard over what Chid had meant as he chased after his father and Hitomi who were at that point fairly far ahead of him.

* * *

The moment Star entered the castle all the lights flickered and the door slammed shut behind her. She turned around and saw two men standing in front of the great wooden doors with such a range of weapons between them that Star did not bother to study them. She took a deep breath and placed her hand reassuringly on the hilt of her blade as she followed her escorts through the maze of hallways while the sounds of their footsteps echoed eerily in the silence.

* * *

Hitomi stopped every so often to try and sense where her cousin had gone. At least twice they had to backtrack because they had gotten lost. How were they supposed to find Star when they couldn't even find out where they were themselves? Hitomi let out a sigh and Blai smiled inwardly, that one sound reflected everything he was feeling and he wished he could have let it out as well.

"Something doesn't feel right," Van said with his hand immediately on the hilt of his blade as he listened carefully to the world around them. "Let's hurry." What did he think they were trying to do? Blai and Hitomi exchanged glances, they knew better than to say anything.

* * *

"Who are you?" Star's voice carried in the dark room. Her escorts had left her at the door and said that she was to go inside. Curious, the girl had obeyed and as soon as she entered they closed the door tightly behind her. "Who are you?" Star asked again, hoping her eyes would adjust quickly. She didn't like feeling vulnerable and so focused all her senses on her surroundings. For all she knew, there could have been an ambush waiting for her there.

_You've found me,_ the voice that Star had come to associate with the EscaFlowne boomed happily inside her head. It sounded like a child whose best friend found him after a day of being lost alone in the dark woods. _I've been waiting for a long time._

I know, Star thought, I'm sorry. Before she could react, someone flung themselves on top of her and the teenage girl was knocked over onto the floor. "Turn on the lights!" Star's attacker yelled to someone the other girl could not see and immediately the darkness disappeared and she could see who was on top of her.

Star let out a gasp, it couldn't be…


	21. I'm Sorry But My Words Aren't Enough

**Fortune 21-I'm Sorry But My Words Aren't Enough**

Blai, Hitomi, and Van tilted their heads up at an uncomfortable angle so that they could see the whole of a large, dark, looming castle that reminded the woman from the Mystic Moon of a prison, but with more elegance. "How do we get in?" Blai asked, hoping against all hope that the older two would have some idea as to what they were doing. Hitomi and Van exchanged worried glances, a clear indication that Blai's hopes had failed.

"We can't exactly walk over there and knock on the door…" Hitomi joked with a grin.

To her surprise, the two Fanelians smiled as well. "That's exactly what we'll do," Van said. And Hitomi thought she knew all of the king's stupid stunts by now.

* * *

"You're still alive?" Star asked, holding her 'attacker' at arms length and studying her. "I thought you died with all the others! I can't believe it's really you, Arekusa!" She hugged her old friend tightly, finally having some sort of anchor to the peaceful life she used to have.

Arekusa pushed away and smiled, "Yup, still alive. I'm really sorry, though, Sayako."

Star shrugged, causing her dark hair to bounce, and her blue eyes glistened with tears she was trying to hold back. "What are you sorry about, Are?" 'Are' had been her nickname… "It isn't as if all the crap that happened is your fault."

"Yes, it is." Star struggled to keep her jaw attached to the rest of her head and stared, wide-eyed at her friend. "It was all my fault, and I'm so sorry…"

* * *

Just as she had thought, knocking was obviously the worst possible choice. It let everyone inside know that you were outside so they could get ready and Hitomi could tell that the two boys weren't expecting an answer. Why in the world would they do something like that? The woman doubted whether even they knew.

Van kicked the door open and Hitomi's green eyes widened in surprise, she hadn't noticed before but they both had their beautiful, white wings out, folded behind their backs. So they did have a plan? As soon as the door was down, Van grabbed Hitomi by the waist and the three of them shot forward into the unknown maze of the castle.

* * *

"How could it all have been your fault, Are?" Star asked sarcastically. Her friend had changed a lot over the years. No, her appearances and her voice had remained mostly unchanged, but her personality…her sense of humor had certainly dived.

Arekusa looked at her seriously as she tucked a strand of her earlobe-length auburn hair behind her ears. "When we were younger, these people came for me…" Star noticed the men in the cloaks and masks appear behind her friend, she hadn't noticed them before in her elation. "They said they were descendants of a great empire called Zaiboch and that they needed a pure heart to survive. I was descended from their old leader, the one who made their name infamous, so I was an obvious choice. But when they came for me, I told them that I could help them and they believed me.

"I told them that I could get them someone with a purer heart than mine," Arekusa sat down on a dark throne somewhere in the shadows in the back of the room, her brown eyes glinting in the limited moonlight that managed to sneak through the window. "That was you, Sayako. In return, they promised I could lead them, they told me that I could rule this world and our own. So I gave you to them, but that dratted family of yours foiled my plans and I had to come along as well."

An image flashed before Star's eyes while the other girl watched her reaction closely; an image from all those years ago. Arekusa as Star remembered her stood with her eyes toward the ground while not a word escaped her lips as relatives sought to fill in the silence with comforting words of love toward Sayako. But Arekusa…Arekusa had been the only one to remain silent, why did that not strike Star as odd until that very moment?

"This is just some cruel joke, right, Are?" From the look on the brunette's face, it wasn't. But was it just a trick of the light, or was there really sympathy in those brown eyes, now suddenly unfamiliar with this new revelation. "It is, isn't it?" Star noted with only the slightest bit of disgust at the desperation in her voice.

Arekusa shook her head, her brown hair bobbing around her long, thin face. "I'm sorry, Sayako. I really am…" Sayako, Sayako, Sayako…Star covered her eyes and closed her eyes tightly trying to keep the name from penetrating any further into her thoughts. Sayako, Sayako, Sayako…the name echoed in her head, rang throughout the emptiness that seemed to have fallen there at her friends strange and startling words. And inside of her, the girl felt something snap before she fell backwards into a soothing, comforting darkness.

* * *

Van sliced the last man with his blade and together, he and his son brought the door down. Hitomi had found the way to the EscaFlowne, now that they had that, they just needed to find Star. The king jumped inside of the great machine and the three, or four depending on the point of view, made their way through the castle maze to find the girl from the Mystic Moon.

* * *

The demon girl Sayako admired her hands and figure and a satanic smirk spread across her face making her grimly beautiful features almost grotesque. "You are the one who set me free?" she asked, her voice sent a shiver down Arekusa's spine; it was nothing like how she had imagined it would sound. The change from her old friend was disturbing.

"Yes, I am…"

Sayako's smirk widened, "Both she and that dratted angel are asleep. For that I thank you, but I think I know your intentions and I intend to take orders from no one."

Arekusa would have looked surprised had her features not been hidden so completely by the shadows. "But it is only thanks to me that you even exist."

"And thanks to you that the angel exists as well…"

The brunette looked as though she would have liked to say something but her words were lost on their way out of her mouth as Sayako sliced her throat with a knife she had acquired from a wall hanging within an instant. Just as Arekusa gurgled her last breath and fell to the floor with her eyes wide to reflect the fear she held in her last moments before her death, the door flew open and there stood the EscaFlowne, towering in the strange light with Blai and Hitomi at its sides.


	22. Come Back to Us, We Love You

Wow, I apologize in advance for the crappiness of the upcoming fight scene. It ends badly, it starts badly, it middle is bad…ly. Anyways, sorry about that…

**Fortune 22- Come Back to Us, We Love You**

"It's you again!" Blai and Sayako said at the same time, both pointing an accusing finger at the other. "You're the one that wanted to take over Star's body," Blai said angrily, at least now he understood why. He was not going to be afraid any longer of admitting that he was in love with the girl, had fallen in love with her while they were traveling together all that time and he was going to tell her as soon as they got Star back.

"And you're the one who didn't want me to," Sayako said with a shrug before her gaze fell upon the giant EscaFlowne. "So this is the dragon you were annoying me about," she muttered but her voice carried around the room so that everyone could hear.

Hitomi looked at the strange woman, "What's going on?" she asked, not that she was expecting much of an answer. This strange person seemed too lost in her own world to pay attention to anything else. "I don't understand why you can hear it while I cannot…"

"STAR!" Hitomi yelled, trying to get the girl's attention.

Sayako jerked out of her trance and looked over at the brunette, "What do you want? You're bothering me."

"Who are you? What's going on?"

The devil woman held up a hand to tell Hitomi not to go on. "I suppose I'll explain things to you. I'm kind enough to grant this last request of that bitch who used to own this body…

"My name is Sayako," Hitomi gave a sharp intake of breath, she had seen that name on the note all those years ago, the very same note that had warned her of Star's misfortunes. "I am the embodiment of all resentment and hatred. Have you ever heard of what happens when you taint the heart of one that is pure?" She didn't wait for them to answer. "They're hatred becomes pure, and the only thing that allowed me to become real was for a certain ceremony to take place. It wasn't completed, thanks to that girl's family. But after all this time, it's finally done." She held up her hand and exposed the mark on her wrist for them all to see.

* * *

"You helped me out before," Star said as she stared at the sleeping angel. She did not dare take a step closer in fear that she would be burned by that brilliant light. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

The voice echoed throughout the darkness, "We are asleep. We can never wake up."

To her great surprise, the angel's eyes opened and she slowly, gracefully sat upright. "What do you mean?" Star asked.

"I mean you and I will remain here for an eternity. Even after your body dies we shall be trapped here. There is nothing left that can stop her."

"Who?"

"The devil…"

* * *

"So then, where is Star?" Hitomi asked, on the verge of tears. That was strange, she hardly ever cried since she first came to Gaea.

Sayako shrugged again, "Asleep. But she'll be like for a very long time." Blai's hands balled into fists and shook at his sides. The dark-haired woman didn't notice and she turned around, stepping gingerly over Arekusa's dead body, and made her way to the dark throne in the shadows of the room.

The young prince lunged forward and tackled the strange woman before punching her in the face. He pinned her down with his knees.

* * *

Star gasped in surprise as she felt something invisible hit her face. She looked at the angel and noticed that she had a mark in the same place. "What's going on?"

"She finished it," the angel said. At the other girl's look, the winged one went on, "she finished the ritual. That means she doesn't feel pain and her body doesn't show injury but ours do…yours feels pain mine does the latter. That's why we still exist."

The teenager looked at the glowing woman angrily, for she seemed to glow with an inner light, and said, "I used to think that I existed only to live for the people who died that day. I'm sure _you_ know it," she added coolly before continuing, "but it took me long enough to realize that you're never supposed to be alive for other people. You're alive for yourself. Saying that we exist to feel her pain or to bear her injuries, to make her immortal," she paused and grimaced as she felt another blow on her face, "then we aren't existing at all."

"That is because we don't…"

* * *

Blai punched the girl again and would have continued to do so if she hadn't broke into laughter. Not your generic evil laughter, but it was so normal that it left shivers running up and down the boy's spine. The bad guy wasn't supposed to sound so normal.

"Do you think hurting me will do anything? No, I told you, everything was complete. The only people you're hurting are the ones inside of me…the two that are asleep. Do you still want to try," she smirked. She knew the three of them would not want to her that sad little girl resting inside of her. Human attachments made a person weak…how pathetic.

The young prince stood up and released Sayako from his hold. "If there's no other way…" he heard his father say, his voice sounded strange but maybe that was because of the EscaFlowne. Out of the corner of his eye the boy saw the white Melef rush towards Sayako but he didn't register the movement until his father had sunk his sword into the girl's stomach.

* * *

Both Star and the angel shouted and reeled over in pain as a wound spread across the angel's stomach. "They are trying to kill her," the angel said solemnly as blood seeped through her clothing around the wound.

"You're going to die…"

The angel shook her head, "I cannot. You and I cannot die until the one outside does. Until then, our wounds will heal," Star hadn't noticed before that the wound had stopped bleeding, "and we will be forced to take it all."

* * *

Sayako glared up at the man inside the Melef, ignoring large blade going through her stomach and the chair behind her. "I liked this chair…" she said angrily before holding up her hand and sending out what looked like a wave of darkness from her palm. The EscaFlowne stumbled backwards and the woman pulled the sword out of her stomach with a disgusting squelching sound, but no wound appeared. Blai looked angrily at his father, he was killing Star.

The devil woman stood up, her eyes glinting maliciously, and a blade appeared in her hand. She flipped onto the EscaFlowne and was about to thrust her sword through the gaps in the protective armor. "You dare to attempt at my life? You dare to take the life of the devil?"

"Stop!" Hitomi yelled with her pendant clutched between her hands, the pendant that made wishes come true…The woman looked over at Hitomi with an ugly grimace on her face.

"I see that if I am to do anything, you must be the first to disappear," and the girl jumped down from the EscaFlowne, landing easily on the ground before making her way slowly, confidently, to where Hitomi stood. The woman apparently hadn't thought that far ahead as her eyes widened in fright and Sayako stood almost sword distance away from where Hitomi was.

Blai jumped in front of Sayako which forced her to laugh, "And what are you going to do, little boy? Are you going to try to kill me to? Do I make you angry? Do I disgust you? You know…I find you interesting. This may prove stupid, but I think I shall let you live…"

Her voice trailed off as the young prince pressed his lips over hers and all his thoughts and feelings reached out for Star.

* * *

The teenager felt herself being lifted up. "What's going on?"

"You are being called," the angel said with a smile as a strange light circled around her. "And I am being called away…"

"What does that mean?"

"It means, she and I need no longer exist. Now that you know who you are, we will disappear…" her strong, comforting voice was already starting to fade away.

"What's your name?"

Star almost felt like her very molecules were splitting apart, as if she was blinking in and out of focus like a bad computer program. "Sani," the angel said before both girls disappeared.

* * *

Blai stepped back and someone fell on top of him. He brushed away the girl's dark hair and noticed the red at the tips and Star's face underneath. "What just happened?" he asked strangely but when he turned to look back at the others, Van and Hitomi were laughing with relief and disbelief. "Guess it doesn't matter then, does it?" The young prince stood up and lifted the girl in his arms before turning around to the others with a wide grin on his face and his cheeks burning red, he hadn't been planning on that. "Well, are we going home, or what?"


	23. Don't Miss Me

**Fortune 23-Don't Miss Me Because I'm Never Going Back**

The two girls looked over the remnants of the once beautiful Fanelia. "What are they going to do, now?" Hitomi asked, delaying the question that was trying to escape from her mind, though it felt like it was fluttering somewhere in her windpipe.

"Rebuild, what else can we do?" The 'we' stung harder than Hitomi thought it ever could. She had watched her cousin grow up from that lonely little child out on the streets; she had taken care of the younger girl for so many years. Hitomi was afraid to let her go, she was afraid of the changes that had taken place in her strange cousin over the lapse in time that she wasn't present. She wasn't there to see Star mature and grow, and she didn't know if she would ever be.

As if she could sense her cousin's thoughts, which certainly was the case, Star said, "Don't worry. I already told you, I found a way to link Gaea and Earth permanently, that way we won't really be all that far apart. And you can come visit Van, Blai and me here." She smiled in a way that Hitomi thought she would never see; it was beautiful, lighting up the young woman's entire face.

"You're too young to decide…"

"Which world I'm going to live in?" Star finished, "No, I'm not too young. I've realized that I wasn't becoming the person I should have; I'm changing my name and starting over. Here, in Gaea."

"But…"

Star held out a hand and looked up at the Mystic Moon, shining bright blue against the black night sky. The night seemed so much more beautiful here than it had on Earth for reasons unknown to the teenager. "I don't belong there. Look at the life I lead; I was cold, sarcastic, cruel. I had no friends…" the face of that boy from the tarot shop flashed inside her mind but she suppressed the image. "I didn't have anyone left, really. Here, I have something to live for again," the girl smiled absently.

Hitomi smiled for the first time since her cousin had awoken a few days ago claiming that she would never return home. "Blai?" she didn't need to ask. It was obvious, really.

The teenager looked shyly away before continuing on, "We've all been doing a lot of research these past few days. I have the power to link both our worlds; I can put the links in places that no one will ever find them, only we'll know where they are. That way, if anything ever happens, we can easily travel between the worlds."

"Earth is your home."

"There's nothing left for me there, it isn't a home anymore. Listen, Kanzaki, I belong here. I was here years ago. This is where it all happened," she spread her arms wide as if trying to embrace the world around her, "this is where I should be. You should be back there; you have a life waiting for you. No one will miss me back there."

Hitomi looked at her cousin who was determinedly keeping her blue gaze away, "I would miss you."

The next day, Star stood in front of the portal with Blai standing at her side and Van and the others standing beside him. After hours of long, difficult work, she had managed to make a link between both the Mystic Moon and Gaea. It was strange, she hadn't been here too long, and already she was starting to call her old world by this strange new name. Star smiled inwardly before her thoughts were snapped back by her cousin's sad embrace. "I'm going to miss you, Star."

"It isn't Star anymore, Kanzaki. I'm Sani, now." Sani…

Sayako, the devil; Star, the vessel; Sani, the angel…Sayako, the past; Sani, the future…

_I am your future, I was inside of you always, I just had to make you see it._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And The Power of Two is finally complete. I know it was a bad ending to the story, but that's okay. It's over… I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and I hope you read some of my other works as well.

And a last note from Saya: Good-bye, see you all later. Saya, signing off (I've always wanted to say that).


End file.
